For the time being, the historic Green Vault in the Dresden City Palace is no longer accessible to the public. Museum director Dirk Syndram told MDR that he expected the collection to be closed for a longer period of time. The other museums in the house are said to reopen on Wednesday.
Several perpetrators had entered the museum early Monday morning according to police. They smashed a display case with an ax and stole an unknown number of jewels. The police published meanwhile first photos of the hitherto known booty.
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Theft in Dresden: These trinkets have stolen the thievesSyndram said the showcase had not been completely emptied. "I have seen a photo that shows that not everything is missing." The Director-General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Marion Ackermann, told the ZDF: "The perpetrators could not take everything with them, because all the objects were also individually fastened, they were stitched with stitches to the ground."
Ackermann spoke of a "very complex" security system in the Residenzschloss. "Several alarms have been triggered, the burglary itself, the motion detectors in the room, the breaking of the showcase and the police were informed on the first alarm." The security concept will nevertheless be checked again.
The President of the Deutscher Museumsbund commented on safety precautions. "Museums are public institutions, we want to be public houses that naturally want to appeal to visitors," said Eckart Köhne. "We're not a bank safe, and that carries some risk."
Many security systems work from the point of view of the museum expert. "In Dresden, the burglary has been noticed immediately, has been recorded on video, so the security measures have already taken effect and it has not gone unnoticed, whatever it is."
The association had responded nonetheless: They had founded a working group on security. "But one hundred percent security is just not possible."