The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) wants to announce details of the theft of the Celtic gold treasure worth millions from a Manching museum today. On the night of Tuesday, the unknown burglars entered the Celtic Roman Museum in the town near Ingolstadt. The gold treasure consisting of 483 coins was completely stolen.
Bavaria’s Minister of Art Markus Blume (CSU) spoke of enormous cultural damage. “The loss of the Celtic treasure is a catastrophe, the gold coins are irreplaceable as testimonies to our history,” he said.
The pot of gold was the flagship of the museum. According to the LKA, the collector’s value of the historical coins is estimated at several million euros. It is the largest Celtic gold find that has appeared in the last century. An excavation team discovered the coins 23 years ago. There were 483 gold coins in the display case. They have been dated to around 100 BC.
Robbery not directly detected
According to initial investigations, the burglary occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The perpetrators disappeared undetected. The crime was only discovered when the employees came to the museum in the morning. First, the Kripo of the police headquarters in Ingolstadt was turned on. Because of the great value of the stolen goods, the LKA quickly took over the case.
Since 2006, the treasure has been exhibited in the then opened museum in the district of Pfaffenhofen/Ilm. The so-called Oppidum Manching is considered an important Celtic settlement in which archaeologists keep documenting finds to this day.
But the importance of Manching is also known to criminals. At the beginning of May, robbers dug about 140 holes on the site of a scientific excavation. It is not yet known whether Celtic finds were stolen in the process.
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