Gold treasure looted in 'super-fast' raid on Spanish museum

Madrid, Spain - On Thursday, thieves carried out a swift and unprofessional raid on the Treasure of Villena, a collection of ancient gold artifacts, in what officials described as one of the latest high-profile museum heists in Europe. The council spokesman in Villena stated that it was unclear how many of the 50-plus valuable objects, mainly gold, were stolen, as police were still cataloguing the items.

The alarm sounded at the museum around 5:20am, and the robbers had fled by 5:24am. The 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles, and other items, dating back to around 1,000 BC, were housed in a small museum in the Alicante province town of Villena. All security systems were set off, and the council insisted there were no issues with the museum's safety measures.

Prior to this, authorities investigated a potential diversion alarm at the city's sports center. In October, Paris' Louvre museum was burgled in broad daylight, with thieves escaping with $102 million worth of jewelry in under eight minutes. More recently, Italian authorities recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse, worth over $10.4 million, that had been stolen from a museum near Parma.