Thieves stage lightning raid on Bronze Age gold in Spain

MADRID

The treasure was discovered in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler in a vessel sunk in a dried-out riverbed in Villena.

Thieves on Aug. 27 raided the Treasure of Villena, one of the greatest Bronze Age gold collections, in the latest high-profile heist on a European museum, officials said.

The raid on the 50-plus mainly gold objects in the Spanish town of Villena lasted just minutes.

“The alarm at the Villena Museum went off around 5:20 a.m.,” said a spokesman for the town council, adding that by 5:24 am the thieves had already left the building.

The operation was “super-fast and super-professional,” the spokesman said.

“They’ve taken most of the treasure,” the mayor of Villena, Fulgencio Cerdan, told journalists, his voice
breaking.

“We are absolutely devastated, I’m even trembling. The truth is that for those of us from Villena, this destroys us. It’s part of our heritage, of our wealth,” Cerdan said.

The 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles, and other miscellaneous pieces in the Treasure of Villena are kept in a small museum in the Alicante province town.

Though mainly gold, there are also pieces of silver, iron and amber, all dating back to about 1,000 B.C. The treasure was discovered in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler in a vessel sunk in a dried out riverbed in Villena.

While the treasure’s historical value is incalculable, the gold alone is worth around 1.7 million euros ($2 million), according to the mayor.

The thieves arrived in several vehicles and apparently entered the museum “through a window,” according to the Spanish government’s deputy representative in Alicante, Manuel Pineda.

“All security systems were activated,” according to the Villena spokesman, who insisted there had been “no failure” by the museum.

Shortly before the robbery, another alarm went off at the city’s sports center and authorities were investigating whether that was a diversion created by the thieves, the spokesperson added.