Two men carried out a daring robbery at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, stealing a diamond necklace once owned by Queen Nazli of Egypt, Austrian police said. The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon when the suspects smashed a display case containing the valuable piece and fled with the jewelry in an unknown direction.
The necklace, crafted from platinum and diamonds and dating back to at least 1939, was part of an exhibition featuring works by the French luxury jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. Museum officials confirmed that one of the thieves was armed, though they did not specify the weapon used. No injuries were reported during the theft.
According to police descriptions, the robbers were two slim men with dark hair and short beards. The museum’s surveillance cameras captured footage of the perpetrators, which authorities are currently reviewing as part of an ongoing investigation to locate the suspects.
Queen Nazli, the second wife of King Fouad of Egypt, originally owned the necklace. She lost her royal status in 1950 after her son, King Farouk, stripped her of her title following her support for her daughter’s clandestine marriage to a Coptic Christian diplomat in San Francisco. By that time, Nazli and her daughter had relocated to the United States. After a 1952 military coup toppled King Farouk, the new Egyptian regime confiscated the royal family’s assets.
Later in life, Queen Nazli and her daughter lived in affluent homes in Beverly Hills and Hawaii before settling in West Los Angeles. Financial difficulties led to the sale of her jewels through a bankruptcy court in Los Angeles in 1976. Nazli passed away in Beverly Hills in 1978 at the age of 83.
The necklace was slated to remain on display through September and had been previously appraised by the auction house Sotheby’s in 2015, with an estimated value between $3.6 million and $4.6 million.
Lilli Hollein, general director of the Museum of Applied Arts, expressed regret over the theft and said the museum had been prompted to reassess its security protocols. She acknowledged the challenges in preventing attacks even amid robust security, particularly during active exhibitions.
The theft follows a pattern of significant robberies from major European cultural institutions in recent months, including jewel heists at the Louvre in Paris, the theft of paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Antonello da Messina from Italian museums, and the disappearance of Bronze Age gold and silver artifacts from a Spanish museum. Authorities continue to investigate the Vienna case as they seek to recover the stolen necklace and apprehend those responsible.