Mark Megahan
Melting down the gold didn’t disguise where it came from. The biggest problem with stealing ancient treasure is that it’s distinctive. Investigators have been tracking the thieves who made off with a fortune in Celtic pre-Christian coins gleeped from a German museum. Four suspects are in custody and authorities are racing to find the rest of the stash before it gets destroyed forever.
Lumps of melted gold
If you thought melting gold coins into lumps would disguise where they came from, you would be wrong. Especially when the alloy contains trace metals that aren’t in common use today, but was when a hoard of missing coins were minted, all the way back in 100 B.C.
The thieves thought they could get away with that trick. Detectives on the case have found lumps of the precious metal “that appear to have resulted from part of the treasure being melted down, but still hold out hope of finding the rest intact.”
Recently, four suspects were arrested for the break in which happened back on November 22, 2022 at the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching.
Investigators relate that “DNA found on an object outside the museum, which they wouldn’t identify, led them to the suspects, three of whom they linked to a series of previous break-ins in Germany and neighboring Austria dating back to 2014.” It was probably a cigarette butt. That led them to the lumps of gold. The bandits made off with “483 Celtic coins discovered during an archaeological dig in 1999.”
While the crew are experienced robbers the Manching job “appeared to be the alleged gang’s first targeting cultural treasures.” But not their last. “Investigators said vehicles rented this year by the suspects had been used to check out other possible targets in Germany, stopping near museums in Frankfurt, Idar-Oberstein, Trier, and Pforzheim.”
As they made the arrests, they stumbled on lumps that “appear to have resulted from part of the treasure being melted down.” One of the suspects had them in a plastic bag. When the coins were discovered, along with a big lump of the un-worked metal, it was hailed as “the biggest trove of Celtic gold found in the 20th century.”
18 lumps recovered
According to Guido Limmer, deputy head of Bavaria’s state criminal police office, “authorities have examined 18 lumps of gold that were recovered this week. Each is believed to be the result of four coins being melted down.”
That leaves 411 unaccounted. Limmer is the one who explained that “the non-standard alloy largely matches that of the treasure, though further analysis is ongoing.”
“We know that about 70 gold coins have apparently been lost irretrievably in their cultural and historical significance,” Bavaria’s state culture minister, Markus Blume laments. 72 actually. “But that means that of course there is still hope of perhaps being able to find the rest.”
He points out that it would still be the “majority” of the treasure. It’s much more important culturally and historically than just the value of the raw metal, which happens to be enormous. It’s trading today at $1,972.30 an ounce.
For now, the search is focusing on the “Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state in northeastern Germany, where three of the suspects were arrested.” They have a couple leads elsewhere though, they mentioned offhandedly. The arrested suspects are all German.
“A telecoms engineer, an accountant, a shop manager, and a demolition firm employee.” They’re all keeping quiet and not saying a word to police. When they grabbed the gold treasure, they did some of their standard things. “cables were cut at a telecommunications hub, knocking out local networks, before the Manching heist.” Three of them “are also suspected of participating in 11 other robberies or attempted robberies between 2014 and 2022 in which supermarkets, a vehicle registration office, and a casino were targeted.“
