Spanish officials have confirmed a theft at the Villena Museum, which houses the Treasure of Villena – one of Europe's most important Bronze Age gold collections. The incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday, marking the latest in a series of brazen museum robberies across Europe.
A spokesperson for the Villena city council said the exact number of stolen artifacts had not yet been determined, as police conduct a full inventory. The collection comprises more than 50 pieces, primarily gold, along with items made of silver, iron, and amber, dating to around 1000 BC. It includes 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three vessels, and various other objects.
According to a museum representative, the alarm system sounded at approximately 5:20 AM, and by 5:24 AM the thieves had left the building. The operation was described as “extremely fast and extremely professional.”
The spokesperson stressed that “all security systems were activated” and that the museum had no flaws in its protection procedures. Earlier, another alarm had gone off at a municipal sports center, and authorities are investigating whether it was a diversion staged by the thieves.
The Treasure of Villena was discovered in 1963 by archaeologist Jose Maria Soler inside a vessel buried in a dried-up riverbed in the Villena area, in the province of Alicante. The artifacts are currently kept in a small local museum.
This theft follows a string of high-profile break-ins at major European museums. In October last year, intruders broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight and escaped in under eight minutes with jewelry worth $102 million. Earlier this month, four works of “extraordinary value” by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy. Around the same time, Italian police announced the recovery of paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse worth over $10.4 million that had been stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Museum near Parma.
