Manching gold robbery: Mayor shocked – “A madness”

Created: 2022-11-25 05:09

By: Dirk Walter, Dominik Göttler, Johannes Welte

It only lasted nine minutes: in a cloak-and-dagger operation, unknown persons stole a Celtic pot of gold from the museum in Manching.

There is no trace of the perpetrators.

The investigators speak of parallels to the jewel theft in Dresden.

Manching – Herbert Nerb runs up and down the museum excitedly.

The broken glass is still lying around there, the traces of the break-in.

Suddenly the mayor of Manching (district of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm) blurted out: “That shouldn’t have happened.

I always thought something like that only existed in the big city, crazy!” But it happened.

Strangers have stolen the market town's treasure, its pride and joy, from the Celtic Roman Museum.

A treasure that slumbered under the feet of the residents for more than 2000 years before archaeologists discovered it in 1999.

"It's like something out of a fake movie," says Nerb.

After gold robbery in Manching: Minister of Culture Blume is shocked

The Manching gold robbery shocked the suburb of Ingolstadt just as much as it did the Bavarian museum world.

Art Minister Markus Blume (CSU) speaks of an “attack on our cultural heritage and also on the cultural state.” A cultural asset that is more than 2000 years old is now in the hands of criminals.

Obviously professionals were at work.

And so far there is no trace of the perpetrators.

The treasure from Manching was kept in a floor display case.

The perpetrators smashed the protective pane to get at the gold.

© Peter Kneffel/dpa/Archaeological State Collection

What happened?

At 1:17 a.m. on Tuesday night, the perpetrator or perpetrators cut several cables in a Telekom distribution center in Manching and paralyzed the Internet and telephone network for around 13,000 households in the area.

Nine minutes later, an escape door was pried open in the museum about a kilometer away.

The alarm goes off, but is not transmitted to the security company's control center because of the cut lines.

The perpetrator or perpetrators pried open another door on the upper floor and stole 483 gold coins, a so-called cast gold cake, from a floor display case and three other, larger coins from a wall display case.

After just nine minutes, at 1:35 a.m., the thieves left the building.

This is how LKA Vice President Guido Limmer described the night of the crime yesterday.

At around 4 a.m., a Telekom technician reports the network disruption to the operations center.

Because of repeated cases of blown up ATMs, the police immediately send patrols to the local money houses.

But nobody seems to be thinking about the museum at the moment.

The theft was not noticed by museum employees until around 9.45 in the morning.

Manching gold robbery: parallels to Dresden and Berlin?

The investigators assume that the burglary is related to the sabotage at the distribution center.

A 20-strong Soko "Oppidum" was founded, named after the Celtic settlement that was in the area of ​​today's Manching.

The investigators are now evaluating the hard drive from the museum.

So far, it is also unclear whether there are recordings of the perpetrators.

There were no security guards in the museum.

The public prosecutor's office has initiated proceedings for serious gang theft and criminal damage to property.

LKA man Limmer emphasizes that one is in exchange with colleagues from Berlin and Dresden - because the case has parallels to the raids in Berlin's Bode Museum and the Green Vault in Dresden.

After these cases, the security systems in the Manchinger Museum were checked.

Stunned: Mayor Herbert Nerb.

© Welte

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Nevertheless, the perpetrators also made fat booty there.

Rupert Gebhard is head of the Archaeological State Collection - the Celtic Museum is a branch of the State Collection.

He says the coins have a retail value of around €1.6 million.

The pure gold value of the 3.724 kilogram stolen goods is currently around 250,000 euros.

But in addition to the sheer sum, this case is about the loss of a "real gem", the largest Celtic gold find that turned up during regular excavations in the 20th century.

The find also has a high identification value for the community.

One day after the burglary, the technicians in Manching worked on the damage.

It took until the evening before all households and companies were supplied with telephone and internet again.

Wolfgang Greis, 42, works on the municipal building yard and lives right next to the control center: "I slept at night and didn't notice anything about the burglary.

Not even my dog ​​woke up, and he gets everything else.” He is certain: “Professionals must have been at work there.”

Manching gold robbery: residents didn't notice anything

The windowless technical building is located in the backyard of a residential area.

Next door: an empty supermarket, a funeral home that is closed at night, a vacant lot and two single-family houses.

The second resident was not aware of the break-in either.

According to information from our newspaper, there are no signs of departure at this crime scene.

Not all of the fiber optic cables were cut, which could suggest the perpetrators knew what they were doing.

A fitter on site does not want to rule out that it was an insider.

It is not so easy to make a duplicate key for the complex locking system.

In addition to Telekom employees, many third-party companies also have access to the switchgear.

The case is also causing concern in other museums.

"I was shocked when I heard about the case," says Prof. Günther Moosbauer, head of the Gäubodenmuseum in Straubing.

One of the most important Roman treasures in Germany is stored there, which includes Roman parade armor, among other things.

"Our exhibits do not have a particularly high material value," says Moosbauer.

But he fears wealthy clients who will stop at nothing for their private collection.

The alarm system was recently updated for a lot of money.

"That's all we can do." But the worries remain.

Art Minister Blume said yesterday that all security measures had to be checked again after such an incident.

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In the meantime, only disbelief remains in Manching.

Mayor Nerb tells of the time when archaeologists began to excavate the historic Celtic city decades ago.

At that time they were still smiled at as "Boandlkramer".

But everything changed when the coin was found.

"The pot of gold they found made us all proud." Now it's gone.

And no one knows if he will ever be found again.

Manching gold robbery: Interview with the discoverer of the gold coins

The archaeologist Dr.

Matthias Leicht, 60, found the Celtic pot of gold from Manching in 1999.

Today he is head of excavations at the private excavation company ADA.

We can reach him on the phone.

Mr. Leicht, where are we tracking you down right now?

Easy:

I'm in Weißenburg in Middle Franconia.

We recover a Roman burial ground on the planned western bypass.

How did you find out about the gold heist?

Easy:

A colleague sent me a message on Tuesday late afternoon.

I was of course shocked and surprised.

Memories came up immediately.

Memories of August 26, 1999, the day you found the treasure.

How was it back then?

Leicht:

At that time I was in charge of excavation work in Manching for the research center of the Roman-Germanic Commission.

It was shortly before closing time, I was standing at an excavator that had removed a layer of humus.

So I thought to myself, I'll run a bit more control.

Yes, and then I saw something yellowish shimmering in the ground.

At first I thought it was a bone.

But it was different.

A gold coin.

Easy:

Yes.

I thought to myself: what do I do now?

I fetched my assistant.

It was clear to us that things had to be done quickly, even then there were robber graves in Manching.

So we measured the find that same evening, documented it with drawings and photographs and recovered the entire treasure.

The find was exceptional.

All the coins were in one heap.

Since we also recovered three copper rings that served as clasps, the gold coins must have been hidden in a leather or cloth pouch.

Which in turn might be in a house wall.

The finder: archaeologist Matthias Leicht © ADA-Archäologie GbR

Archaeologist Leicht expects the gold to be melted down: "A catastrophe"

Who hid them there?

Easy:

Of course we don't know any names.

But the entire pot of gold weighs almost four kilos and was so valuable even then that it probably did not belong to a single person.

More of a tribe.

Now the treasure is stolen.

Do you have any idea what the thieves might do with it?

Easy:

In any case, you can't sell the treasure, because everyone would prick up their ears.

The coins are unique and have individual mintings.

It is feared that the gold will simply be melted down.

Easy:

That would be a disaster.

What are almost four kilos of gold worth – maybe a good 200,000 euros?

But the cultural value is immeasurable, after all it is the largest Celtic gold treasure find of the 20th century.

My faint hope is that an individual is behind this.

Then the pot of gold would still be preserved.

Was the treasure adequately secured?

Easy:

Others have to judge that.

But I'm already wondering whether it doesn't make sense to secure such valuable finds with security at night.

The interview was conducted by Dirk Walter.