The break-in at Musée Lalique in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France occurred at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 7
NEED TO KNOW
- Millions of dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from Musée Lalique
- The heist in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France occurred at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 7
- The museum announced on its website that “following a burglary, the Lalique Museum will be closed for several days”
Millions of dollars worth of jewelry was stolen from a French museum in an early morning heist.
The break-in at Musée Lalique in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France occurred at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 7, the Times of London reported.
“Around twenty pieces of jewelry were stolen,” a source told AFP, CBS News reported. “The loss is currently being assessed but could amount to several million euros, likely close to four million (over $4.5 million).”
According to the Times, the masked thieves broke into six display cases and stole six expensive pieces.
The burglars were in the museum for only 11 minutes, per the Times.
“An alarm went off, but by the time the security company had completed its checks, it was a cleaning lady who arrived first on the scene and called the police,” the AFP source said, per CBS News.
Wingen-sur-Moder Mayor Christian Dorschner said the security company did not intervene immediately.
“They did not call the gendarmes,” he told Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace newspaper, the Times reported.
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“The alarms went off one after another, as if the burglars had gone all the way around the museum,” he said. “We pay large security firms and this is the result. They went first for the jewellery. They must be specialists.”
The museum announced on its website that “following a burglary, the Lalique Museum will be closed for several days.”
The museum, dedicated to René Lalique, the Art Nouveau and Art Deco jeweler and glassmaker, opened in 2011 in Alsace, in the same village as the company’s historic factory.
The museum contains more than 650 “exceptional works that follow the career of René Lalique and his successors,” according to its website.
The museum’s permanent exhibitions highlight “Art Nouveau jewellery and Art Deco glass and perfume bottles to contemporary crystal,” according to its website.
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