German Police Recover 31 Items Stolen In 2019 Dresden Jewel Heist – Authorities in Germany say they have recovered a “considerable portion” of the items stolen in a spectacular 2019 robbery of rare 18th-century jewels from a state museum. The authorities recovered 31 individual items in Berlin, according to police and prosecutors.
The discovery comes in the middle of the trial of six suspects over the brazen night-time raid on the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) at Dresden’s Royal Palace in November 2019. The thieves grabbed 21 pieces of jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong, encrusted with more than 4,300 individual diamonds. The jewels included a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulder piece with the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond. There had been no trace of the jewels.
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However, “exploratory talks” between the defense and the prosecution about a possible settlement and the return of the stolen items resulted in a breakthrough, police and prosecutors said, without revealing any specifics. According to them, special police escorted the retrieved objects from Berlin back to Dresden. Experts will now study them to ensure their authenticity.
The Grünes Gewölbe, one of Europe’s oldest museums, houses treasures such as a 547.71-carat sapphire presented by Tsar Peter I of Russia. The Grünes Gewölbe is made up of ten rooms that house around 3,000 jewelry items and other masterpieces.
The building was severely damaged during WWII but has since been properly restored. It reopened to tremendous international acclaim in 2006 and has been a tourist attraction since it originally opened to the public in 1724. The trial, which opened in January, is due to resume on Tuesday.
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