Two men walked into Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts on a Thursday afternoon, bought regular tickets, and left minutes later with a platinum necklace set with 673 diamonds that once belonged to an Egyptian queen. The piece, valued at more than $4 million, vanished in broad daylight from an open exhibition hall while visitors and staff stood nearby.
The robbery took place around 2 p.m. on August 27, 2026, inside the temporary show “Glanzstücke,” which paired more than 300 works from the Van Cleef & Arpels collection with objects from the museum’s own holdings. The two suspects entered without masks. They moved through the galleries like ordinary visitors before heading straight to a single display case. One man held what police describe as a real firearm in plain view. The other produced a hammer and struck the security glass 41 times until a hole opened large enough to reach through. He took only the target necklace and left the rest of the jewelry untouched. The pair then ran out of the building toward the Stadtpark, where their trail went cold.
No one was injured. Security staff and several visitors were present in the room, yet no one intervened against the armed men. Museum director Lilli Hollein later said her employees followed protocol and reacted calmly under the circumstances.
The stolen necklace was created in 1939 by Van Cleef & Arpels for Queen Nazli of Egypt. She wore the Art Deco platinum collerette, set with more than 200 carats of baguette and round diamonds arranged in a sunburst design, at the wedding of her daughter Princess Fawzia to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then crown prince of Iran and later the country’s last shah. After the Egyptian monarchy fell, Nazli lived in exile in the United States. Facing financial pressure, she sold much of her jewelry at a 1975 Sotheby’s auction in New York, where the necklace brought only $140,000. It reappeared at Sotheby’s in 2015 and sold for $4.282 million. Van Cleef & Arpels bought it back for its patrimonial collection.
Vienna police released clear surveillance images of the suspects the day after the theft. Both are described as slim men between 170 and 175 centimeters tall, with dark hair and dark beards. They wore black outer clothing and dark sneakers with white soles. An international search is under way. Austrian authorities have entered the necklace into INTERPOL’s Stolen Works of Art database. Investigators are examining forensic evidence, additional camera footage, and witness statements. As of August 29, neither man has been arrested and the necklace remains missing.
The theft is the most valuable art robbery in Vienna since the 2003 theft of Benvenuto Cellini’s Saliera from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. It also fits a recent pattern of bold daytime smash-and-grab raids on European museums. In response, the MAK has tightened security for the remaining exhibition: visitors now pass through metal detectors, bags must be checked, additional guards are on duty, and video surveillance has been expanded. The gallery where the case was smashed has been covered, but the rest of the show has reopened.
Police continue to appeal for information. Anyone who recognizes the men from the released images or who saw anything unusual near the museum or Stadtpark on the afternoon of August 27 is asked to contact authorities.
