Visitors look at exhibits near a blue panel covering the area where a display case was smashed and a Van Cleef and Arpels necklace was stolen at Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), in Vienna, Austria, on August 28, 2026. Photo by Jeremy AUDOUARD / AFP
Vienna: Two men bought tickets to enter Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) before smashing a display case, grabbing a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace and walking away, police said Friday.
Austrian media said the Van Cleef and Arpels necklace, with 673 precious stones, was worth several million dollars. It is the latest in a series of high-profile heists to hit European museums.
Police said the two men did not wear masks, paid to enter the museum and were clearly seen on surveillance cameras.
They "smashed a glass display case" with a hammer before "fleeing with the jewellery in an unknown direction," said a police statement.
A blue panel covers the area where a display case was smashed and a Van Cleef and Arpels necklace was stolen at Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), in Vienna, Austria, on August 28, 2026. Photo by Jeremy AUDOUARD / AFP
The MAK museum confirmed the theft but said it would not comment while the investigation went ahead.
The necklace had been part of an exhibition devoted to the French designers Van Cleef and Arpels. Some 500 pieces had been on display since June. The exhibition was to end on September 27 but has been closed following the theft.
On its website, Van Cleef and Arpels called the stolen piece a "triumph of white jewellery". The French company did not immediately comment on the theft.
European museums have been hit by a series of spectacular thefts since thieves in October broke into the Louvre museum in Paris in broad daylight, escaping in less than eight minutes with jewellery worth $102 million.
Thieves on Thursday raided the Treasure of Villena -- one of the greatest Bronze Age gold collections -- at a museum in the Spanish city of Villena, taking most of the 50-plus mainly gold bracelets, bowls, bottles and other items on display.
Four works "of extraordinary value" by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy's culture ministry said Sunday.
Two days earlier, Italian police said they had recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth over $10.4 million which were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.
