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Dresden Green Vault robbery: Priceless diamonds stolen
Burglars
have stolen three diamond jewellery sets from one of Europe's largest treasure
collections - the Dresden Green Vault in eastern Germany.
The historic sets consist of 37 parts
each, and there are fears the thieves may try to break them up.
Officials are still trying to
establish exactly how much was stolen in the break-in early on Monday.
Saxony's ruler, Augustus the Strong,
created the collection in 1723 in what is one of the world's oldest museums.
"Three out of 10 diamond sets
have gone," said Marion Ackermann, head of the Dresden state museums.
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The stolen sets from the Green Vault
(Grünes Gewölbe) are reported to also include some rubies, emeralds and
sapphires.
How
did the thieves get in?
The thieves - still on the run - removed part of an iron grille on a ground-floor window, then smashed the glass.
The Green Vault is
a world-famous treasure collection
At about 05:00 (04:00 GMT) on Monday, firefighters were called to tackle a blaze in a nearby electricity junction box.
There is speculation that the fire disabled the museum's alarm system. It put out some of the street lights.
Police are examining CCTV footage which shows two suspects in the dark. But more people may have been involved in the robbery.
A car found burning in Dresden early on Monday may have been the getaway
vehicle used by the burglars, police say.
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The museum had guards on duty at night, Ms Ackermann said.
Dozens of police cars are at the scene and the Green Vault in central
Dresden is now shut.
What exactly was taken?
"Three out of 10 diamond sets have gone," said Ms Ackermann.
However, Dresden police and museum officials did not provide any further
details.
How much are the stolen jewels worth?
Ms Ackermann described them as "priceless - we can't put a figure
on it".
"The items cannot be sold on the art market legally - they're too
well known," she said.
The baroque palace was hit in World War Two air raids, but Dresden restored it
Ms Ackermann stressed
that the cultural value of the unique collection was far greater than its
material value.
The popular
German daily Bild said the thieves had grabbed jewels worth €1bn
(£855m).
What is the Green Vault?
The
collection is housed in eight ornate rooms in the Residenzschloss - a former
royal palace.
Three
rooms were destroyed by Allied bombing in World War Two, but after the war, the
museum was restored to its previous glory.
It
is called the Green Vault because some rooms were decorated with
malachite-green paint.
The Green Vault houses treasured items such as this 16th-Century Indian mother-of-pearl box
The most valuable
items are in the palace's historic section on the ground floor.
There
are about 3,000 items of jewellery and other treasures decorated with gold,
silver, ivory and pearl. They include a figure of a moor studded with emeralds
and a 648-carat sapphire - a royal gift from Russia's Tsar Peter the Great.
One
of the most valuable jewels is a 41-carat green diamond currently on show in
New York.
The
collection was founded by Augustus the Strong. He was Elector of Saxony (a
German prince entitled to take part in the election of the emperor) and later
king of Poland.
What has the reaction been?
Saxony's
minister-president, Michael Kretschmer, voiced outrage at the crime, saying
"not only were the state art collections burgled, but the people of Saxony
too".
"The
valuables housed in the Green Vault and Residenzschloss were acquired by people
in the Saxony Free State with difficulty, over many centuries." He said
the collection was an integral part of Saxony's history.

More major jewel
heists
§
July 2018 - Thieves
take two 17th-Century crowns and an orb worth millions of dollars from a
cathedral near Stockholm before making a dramatic escape by a speedboat; a
Swedish man is later jailed for the theft
§
April 2015 -
A group of men - mostly in their 60s and 70s - drill into a safety deposit
vault in London's Hatton Garden, taking £13.7m ($18m;€15.4m) in gold, cash and
gems
§
July 2013 - An armed
man takes jewels worth about €40m ($47m; £36m) from a hotel jewellery
exhibition in the French Riviera resort of Cannes
§
August 2009 -
Armed men take jewellery worth £40m ($61m; €45m) in a raid on the Graff
Diamonds shop in central London
§
February 2005 - An
armed gang disguised as airport workers hijack a lorry carrying €75m ($88m;
£67m) of diamonds and other jewels at Amsterdam airport
§
February 2003 -
Robbers steal jewels, then worth €100m (now $117m; £89m), from the Antwerp
Diamond Centre in Belgium
Six men have been convicted over the raid at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd






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