Golden helmet stolen in a theft with explosives within the Netherlands recovered in 2025 | Culture | EUROtoday

The Prosecutor’s Offices of the Netherlands and Romania introduced this Thursday the restoration of the gold helmet of Cotofenesti, in addition to two of the three bracelets that belonged to the treasury of the traditional kingdom of Dacia, which have been stolen in January 2025. They have been then exhibited within the Dutch Drents museum, in Assen, within the east of the nation, and three individuals have been detained as suspects within the assault. Police are nonetheless looking for the third bracelet within the set. The state of affairs brought about nice indignation in Romania as a result of the items are thought-about irreplaceable nationwide heritage and had been loaned for an exhibition that needed to have ample safety measures.

“The works come from the suspects and arrived to us yesterday,” mentioned Corien Fahner, from the Dutch Prosecutor’s Office. Her Romanian colleague, Daniela Buruiana, has highlighted “the effort carried out by the joint research team from both countries that has been created [con la participación de Eurojust, la agencia europea de cooperación judicial]to be able to recover them.” The presentation of the pieces, which need to be restored, has been done with a certain theatricality. They were placed in a display case covered with a black cloth, which has been raised with a countdown: “Three, two, one.” The gesture, closed with applause, has underlined the success of a delicate operation, given the unrest generated in Romania by the theft. According to Fahner, there were no other people involved with the three detainees, whose trial must begin shortly. It is about by Douglas W. (36), Bernhard Z. (35) and Jan B. (21).

According to Arthur Brand, known as “the art detective,” and who has participated within the first a part of the investigations, “great pressure has been put on the robbery suspects, because the trial against them is scheduled for this April, and a few months in prison, if they collaborated, is not the same as a sentence of about six years.” In the top, the thieves returned the loot by way of third events. Robert van Langh, director of the Drents museum, defined that the treasures “can be restored without problems to return them to their original state.” The bracelets are excellent, “and Romania will decide where that work is carried out,” he added.

The assault occurred at daybreak, and there was an explosion within the Drents museum, based in 1854 and devoted to works of Antiquity. The shock wave broke the glass of a number of home windows and hit a number of surrounding buildings. There have been no safety guards within the constructing on the time. The set was a part of an exhibition titled Dacia, the empire of gold and silverwhich offered treasures from Romania and “from the 20th century BC to the 3rd century AD.” The historical past of the Dacians was defined, who inhabited present-day Romania at a crossroads of cultures, since they have been between the Eurasian steppe to the east, the Mediterranean world to the south, and central Europe to the west,” in keeping with the exhibition documentation.