Romania has received 5.7 million euros in insurance money to compensate for a Dacian Golden helmet and three bracelets dramatically stolen in January from the Drents Museum, in the Netherlands, the Culture Ministry said Saturday.
‘The National Museum of History of Romania (MNIR) confirmed that the full amount of the insurance policy, namely 5,700,000 euros, was transferred by the insurer, in line with the insurance contract between the parties. The sum represents the insurance value of the four stolen artifacts: three bracelets and the Dacian Helmet from Cotofenesti. The last installment, worth 855,000 euros, representing 15% of the total value, was transferred on September 12, the previous payment worth 4,845,000 euros, representing 85% of the total value was made on August 25,’ a press release said.
The theft was committed in January, when thieves armed with explosives entered the Drents Museum and broke the windows to steal the helmet and three gold bracelets. They had been lent by Romania’s National Museum of Art. The director of the institution Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu was dismissed in the wake of the theft.
In May there were reports that Romanian gangsters ordered the theft from the museum. The Hardliners motorcycle club, founded in the Netherlands in 2019 in prison by former leaders of the Hells Angels, an illegal criminal organization, is reported to have been involved in the robbery of the Dacian treasure from the Drents Museum, according to RTL Nieuws.
Sources told the outlet that gang members recruited thieves and the robbery was ordered by figures in Romania’s underworld.
The insurance money will be transferred to the state budget. If the cultural artifacts are returned the insurer will request the sum it paid out from the museum, which, in turn, will request the money from the state budget.
The current Culture Minister, Andras Demeter, is the third minister since the national treasures were sent to the Netherlands for the exhibition.
He has requested that procedures relating to the temporary exhibition of national heritage objects be modified to reduce the risk of a repeat.
Romanian gangsters ‘ordered theft’ of Dacian treasure from Netherland’s Drents Museum-report
