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Agence France-Presse

German police on Tuesday arrested three suspects over a spectacular heist a year ago in which more than a dozen diamond-encrusted items were snatched from a state museum in Dresden.
Investigators were also raiding 18 properties in Berlin, including 10 flats as well as garages and vehicles, police and prosecutors said in a statement.
“The measures today are focused on the search for the stolen art treasures and possible evidence, such as data storage media, clothing and tools,” they said.
The stolen jewels were worth up to €1 billion (US$1.19 billion), Bild newspaper reported at the time, without giving a source. Other local media described it as the biggest art heist in modern history.

Robbers launched their brazen raid on Green Vault museum in Dresden’s Royal Palace on November 25, 2019.
Having initiated a partial power cut and broken in through a window, they snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.
Items stolen included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden’s Royal Palace had said.
Dramatic CCTV footage released at that time showed one of the robbers breaking into a display case with an axe.


Police hunting for the suspects had launched several appeals, offering up to half a million euros in reward for information leading to their arrests.
On Monday, around 1,600 officers were deployed in the raids and arrests, with special reinforcements called in from across the country to help.
Police did not identify the three arrested, but said they are German citizens.
All three are accused of “serious gang robbery and two counts of arson”, said Dresden prosecutors.
Germany has been hit by several high-profile heists, with banks and museums frequent targets.

A Berlin court sentenced three men to multi-year jail sentences in February for the theft of a 100kg gold coin from one of the German capital’s museums.
Police have found no trace of the Canadian coin since the late-night heist in March 2017 from the Bode Museum, located close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Berlin flat.
Leads on Dresden jewel heist suggest Arab clan involvement
The “Big Maple Leaf”, one of five minted in 2007, is considered the world’s second-largest gold coin after the one-tonne Australian Kangaroo issued in 2012.
Robbers also hit a German customs office early November, making off with €6.5 million in cash.
Police have offered €100,000 in reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the suspects.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Crime

Arrests in Germany over spectacular ‘billion-dollar jewel heist’ from Dresden museum

Police at the scene of a raid in Berlin, Germany. Photo: EPA

FILE PHOTO: A general view of Green Vault city palace, unique historic museum that contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe after a robbery in Dresden, Germany, November 25, 2019. REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel/File Photo

epa08824547 (FILE) - An undated handout photo made available by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) shows the stolen large breast loop of Dresden's Treasury Green Vault in Dresden, Germany (reissued 17 November 2020). According to media reports, police have have arrested three people in relation to the November 2019 robbery of the Dresden's Treasury Green Vault. EPA-EFE/JUERGEN KARPINSKI/STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNG HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES *** Local Caption *** 55662639

US$1 billion in jewels, no insurance: German police under pressure to catch thieves who carried out the ‘biggest art heist in modern history’

A stolen hair aigrette. Photo: EPA

26 November 2019, Saxony, Dresden: Dirk Syndram (R), Director of the Dresden Armoury, and Marion Ackermann (L), General Director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden,, attend a press conference at the Kleiner Schlosshof Dresdner Residenzschloss, after Dresden's Green Vault Museum was broken on Monday morning, which targeted the historic section of the valuable collection. Photo: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

epa08026197 An undated handout photo made available by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) shows the stolen Epaulette of the Diamond Rose set of Dresden's Treasury Green Vault in Dresden, Germany (issued 26 November 2019). According to the SKD Dresden's Treasury a number of items of jewellery were stolen from Dresden's Treasury Green Vault during a burglary on 25 November 2019. EPA-EFE/JUERGEN KARPINSKI/STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN DRESDEN HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

The front of the Royal Palace that houses the historic Green Vault (Gruenes Gewoelbe) is pictured in Dresden, eastern Germany on November 26, 2019. - The Green Vault, with one of the biggest collection of baroque treasures in Europe, has been robbed, police said November 25, 2019. At a press conference, the director of Dresden's state art collections Marion Ackermann told reporters that the items stolen included sets of diamonds which were "priceless". (Photo by Sebastian Kahnert / dpa / AFP) / Germany OUT

An image take from CCTV footage shows one of the thieves destroying display cases with jewels inside the Green Vault in Dresden, Germany, early Monday. Photo: DPA

Leads on Dresden jewel heist suggest Arab clan involvement

A large breast loop stolen from Dresden’s Green Vault in November. Photo: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden via EPA-EFE

FILE - The Dec. 12, 2010 file photo shows the gold coin 'Big Maple Leaf' in the Bode Museum in Berlin. Burglars broke into Berlin’s Bode Museum in March 2017 and made off with the 100-kilogram (221-pound) Canadian gold coin known as the “Big Maple Leaf.” A brazen burglary on Monday Nov. 25, 2019 from Dresden’s Green Vault, one of the world’s oldest museums, holding priceless treasures is another in a long history of daring European heists over the years. (Marcel Mettelsiefen/dpa via AP, file)

Police investigate near the damaged window lattice at the Green Vault at Dresden Castle in November. Photo: dpa

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World

Europe


Thieves forced their way into Dresden’s Green Vault Museum in November last year
They escaped with at least three sets of early 18th century jewellery, including diamonds and rubies



Police arrest three suspects allegedly involved in a jewel heist at a museum housing one of Europe’s greatest collections of treasures.


Germany

Arrests in Germany over spectacular ‘billion-dollar jewel heist’ from Dresden museum

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Thieves forced their way into Dresden’s Green Vault Museum in November last year They escaped with at least three sets of early 18th century jewellery, including diamonds and rubies

Thieves forced their way into Dresden’s Green Vault Museum in November last year

They escaped with at least three sets of early 18th century jewellery, including diamonds and rubies