Austria museum heist: Thieves snatch diamond necklace

Two men entered Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) on Thursday and made off with a valuable 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace, worth millions of dollars, during broad daylight. The incident, the latest in a series of high-profile thefts at European museums this year, prompted an extensive search that extended beyond Austria's borders.

The thieves purchased tickets to gain entry, subsequently proceeded to the temporary French designers Van Cleef and Arpels exhibition, smashed a glass display case with a hammer, and escaped with the jewelry in an undisclosed direction. Police confirmed that the robbers were not masked and were clearly visible on surveillance cameras.

One robber allegedly possessed a real firearm, though security staff were present and did not interfere with the armed perpetrator. The MAK museum affirmed the theft but provided no further details. The necklace, once owned by the deposed Queen Nazli of Egypt, was crafted for her in 1939 for her daughter's marriage to the future Shah of Iran.

It consists of platinum and over 673 precious stones totaling more than 200 carats. Van Cleef and Arpels describes the necklace as a "triumph of white jewelry." This theft joins a growing list of museum heists in Europe over the past year, including the most notorious incident last October at the Louvre museum in Paris, where thieves stole $102 million worth of jewelry in under eight minutes. Museum thefts have also been reported in Italy and Spain.