A diamond necklace with 673 stones, once owned by Queen Nazli of Egypt, was taken from a Vienna museum in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. Two men paid for tickets, walked in like ordinary visitors, smashed a glass case with a hammer, grabbed the platinum piece, and left on foot. It last sold at auction for $4.3 million, in 2015.
The theft happened at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna on August 27, shortly after 2 p.m., while the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition was open and visitors stood nearby, according to a police statement. No one was hurt. The two men fled in an unknown direction, and police units were deployed across the inner city into the evening.
They Didn’t Even Wear Masks
The suspects made no effort to hide their faces. Police said the pair bought regular admission tickets, walked through several exhibition halls, and were clearly recorded on the museum’s surveillance cameras before they reached the case holding the necklace. Police said one of the men produced a weapon they believe was real, though it was not used.
The grab itself was fast. Using a hammer, the two men shattered the protective glass in front of several visitors, snatched the diamond piece, and walked out. Investigators believe the men knew exactly which item they came for, since they moved through the galleries and went straight to that one case.
A Necklace Made for a Royal Wedding
The Van Cleef & Arpels necklace dates to 1939. The set, including a matching tiara, was made at the request of the Egyptian royal family for the wedding of Nazli’s daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then the Crown Prince of Iran and later the Shah. The French house was founded at Place Vendome in Paris in 1906, and the piece is a clear example of its Art Deco work.
Platinum holds all 673 round and baguette-cut diamonds, set in a sunburst pattern that runs to more than 200 carats. On its website, the jeweler calls it “an iconic example of the success of white diamond jewelry in the late 1930s.” The company did not immediately comment on the theft.
From a Royal Auction to $4.3 Million
The most recent price tag comes from Sotheby’s New York, where the necklace sold for $4.3 million in 2015. The auction house had estimated it would fetch between $3.6 million and $4.6 million.
Its road to that sale was a sad one. After the Egyptian monarchy fell, an impoverished Queen Nazli sold the necklace at a Sotheby’s auction in 1975, at age 81. It then dropped out of public view for four decades before resurfacing in 2015. In 2020 it went on display in Paris at the Museum d’histoire naturelle. It went on show at the MAK on June 10, 2026.
The Search Across Vienna
Police released photographs and descriptions of both suspects. They were said to be slim men between 170 and 175 centimeters tall, roughly 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9, with dark hair and dark beards, dressed in black outer clothing and dark sneakers with white soles. The CCTV images show both men in black from head to toe.
The Vienna Regional Criminal Investigations Office is leading the case, and the Federal Criminal Police Office’s cultural heritage unit joined the inquiry. Vienna police have not confirmed reports that the robbery was a targeted contract job carried out for an organized criminal ring. Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that detectives are examining a possible connection to a syndicate based in the Balkans, though authorities have not formally confirmed that link.
Vienna’s Biggest Art Theft Since 2003
This is the highest-value art heist in Vienna since 2003, when Benvenuto Cellini’s gold-and-enamel Saliera was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. That piece, valued at 50 million euros, was recovered in 2006. A recovery like that is the outcome Austrian authorities are hoping for now, but the clock started the moment the two men walked out the door.
Part of a Wave Hitting European Museums
The Vienna theft comes in the middle of a run of museum robberies across Europe. In October 2025, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight and were gone in under eight minutes with jewellery worth 88 million euros, about $102 million. Several people have been arrested in that case, and the Louvre’s director resigned in February 2026.
On the same Thursday as the Vienna heist, thieves raided the Treasure of Villena in Spain, one of the greatest Bronze Age gold collections, taking most of the 50-plus mostly gold bracelets, bowls and bottles on display. Villena mayor Fulgencio Cerdan said the thieves had taken most of the treasure. “We are absolutely devastated, I’m even trembling,” he said. Earlier in August, four works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily.
Why Thieves Target Pieces Like This
Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, warned in late August that criminals are going after objects made of gold and precious stones, which can be melted down or broken up and sold without leaving a trace. Its new report is titled “Changing Tactics, Changing Targets: The Evolving Nature of Museum Heists.” Museum theft used to be a quiet, non-violent form of property crime built on reconnaissance and discreet execution. That is shifting, the report said, with brute force replacing guile and thieves who often come out of other kinds of crime.
The pattern is easy to see in past cases. In March 2017, a 100-kilogram gold coin known as the Big Maple Leaf, worth 3.75 million euros, was stolen from the Bode Museum in Berlin. Authorities believe it was melted down. In 2022, German police recovered some of the treasures from the Green Vault royal collection in Dresden, which carried an insurance value of 116 million euros when it was stolen in November 2019. A necklace holding more than 200 carats of diamonds fits that logic, since stones can be pried out and scattered.
The Exhibition Reopened the Next Day
The stolen necklace was the centerpiece of “Glanzstucke,” or “Masterpieces,” a show that paired around 500 objects: more than 300 pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels and over 200 items from the museum’s own collection. It opened on June 10 and was scheduled to run through September 27. The MAK said the exhibition would be closed temporarily.
The wing where the theft happened reopened the next day, Friday, August 28. The smashed display case was covered with a blue panel, with no sign explaining what had gone missing. The museum confirmed the theft but said it would not comment while the investigation continues. Visitors can still see the rest of the collection, with the exception of the piece that a hammer and two ticket-buying strangers carried out into the afternoon.
