The Berlin wax museum Madame Tussauds caused a stir on Sunday with a false burglary report. The museum published videos on its own Instagram channel showing how two masked people carried the figure of actor Matthias Schweighöfer out of the building and loaded it into a delivery van. Madame Tussauds writes: “Early on Sunday morning, two people broke into Madame Tussauds Berlin and stole Matthias Schweighöfer’s wax figure. After initial checks of the surveillance cameras, we decided to publish the material.”
It is now clear that the action was not a crime, but a PR stunt, as the Berlin police confirmed to various media. “It currently appears that it could be an advertising campaign by Madame Tussauds and presumably the management of Matthias Schweighöfer,” police spokesman Martin Halweg told RTL on Sunday.
And that’s probably where the real trouble for Madame Tussauds begins. Because not only that officers of the criminal police were there for free. According to media reports, the Berlin police are now also investigating suspected faking a crime. “Anyone who commits crimes must expect that we will pursue them,” said the police spokesman RTL. Using something like this to make yourself known is “morally reprehensible”. According to Section 145d of the Criminal Code, faking a crime is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years or a fine.
Schweighöfer also shared an Instagram story with the alleged theft on Sunday morning. By the early evening, neither Madame Tussauds nor Schweighöfer had resolved that this was a fake.
