In its 170-year existence, there has never been such a major incident.” However, this heist comes less than four months after a similar theft took place when the Dutch MPV gallery was also broken into using explosives.
The artifacts, dated around 50 BCE, and the 5th century BCE golden helmet of Coțofenești have been on loan at the Drents since July 2024 as a part of the exhibition “Dacia – Empire of Gold and Silver.”
The Dacians were a civilization which inhabited most of what is now Romania and other parts of the Balkans, before being invaded by the Romans. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated that the historical artifacts were of “incalculable value,” saying that, “I trust that the Dutch authorities will do everything in their power to apprehend the culprits and return the artifacts to Romania.”
Despite the Prime Minister’s hope in the matter, the incident has sparked online suspicion as to why such valuable items had traveled from The National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest to a much smaller institution with little security.