CrimeAug 06, 2026
Lalique Museum to Remain Closed Following $5M HeistCrimeAug 31, 2026
$4M Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace Snatched From Vienna Museum
Once the property of an Egyptian queen, the necklace was part of a larger exhibition of VCA jewelry at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).
PHOTO Austria’s Landespolizeidirektion (LPD) has released images of the two men who went into Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts in the middle of the day last week and stole a $4 million platinum and diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt. (Photo © LPD)
PHOTO Neither man was wearing a mask. Both are described as 170-175 cm tall (between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-7 inches tall) and slim, with dark hair and a dark beard. One of the men has a bald spot on the top of his head. (Photo © LPD)
Editor’s Note: This story was updated post-publication to include a statement from the museum’s executive director.
Vienna, Austria—A platinum and diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen Nazli Fouad of Egypt was stolen from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) last week by two men who went to the museum in the middle of the afternoon.
In a statement, Austria’s Landespolizeidirektion (LPD) said the theft happened around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday.
Dressed in black but unmasked, the two men smashed a glass display case and grabbed the necklace before fleeing in “an unknown direction,” LPD said.
Museum officials confirmed that one of the suspects was armed, though they did not specify the type of weapon.
The sunburst-pattern, bib-style diamond necklace was part of an exhibition called “Glanzstücke: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection.”
Vienna, Austria—A platinum and diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen Nazli Fouad of Egypt was stolen from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) last week by two men who went to the museum in the middle of the afternoon.
In a statement, Austria’s Landespolizeidirektion (LPD) said the theft happened around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday.
Dressed in black but unmasked, the two men smashed a glass display case and grabbed the necklace before fleeing in “an unknown direction,” LPD said.
Museum officials confirmed that one of the suspects was armed, though they did not specify the type of weapon.
The sunburst-pattern, bib-style diamond necklace was part of an exhibition called “Glanzstücke: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection.”
Sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 1975 and again in 2015 for $4.3 million, the platinum necklace is set with more than 200 carats of diamonds.
The centerpiece of the necklace is an articulated round diamond that weighs about 6 carats. There also are 134 carats of larger round diamonds, 27 carats of smaller round diamonds, and about 50 carats of baguette diamonds.
Queen Nazli commissioned the necklace, as well as a matching tiara, from Van Cleef & Arpels for her daughter’s wedding in 1939.
LPD said following the theft, officials launched an extensive search for the two men that included a tracking dog from the Vienna Police Dog Unit but as of Monday, they remained at large.
The suspects are both described as 170-175 cm tall (between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-7 inches tall) and slim, with dark hair and a dark beard. They were wearing black clothing and dark sneakers with white soles.
LPD said the Vienna State Criminal Police Office has taken over the investigation.
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The centerpiece of the necklace is an articulated round diamond that weighs about 6 carats. There also are 134 carats of larger round diamonds, 27 carats of smaller round diamonds, and about 50 carats of baguette diamonds.
Queen Nazli commissioned the necklace, as well as a matching tiara, from Van Cleef & Arpels for her daughter’s wedding in 1939.
LPD said following the theft, officials launched an extensive search for the two men that included a tracking dog from the Vienna Police Dog Unit but as of Monday, they remained at large.
The suspects are both described as 170-175 cm tall (between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-7 inches tall) and slim, with dark hair and a dark beard. They were wearing black clothing and dark sneakers with white soles.
LPD said the Vienna State Criminal Police Office has taken over the investigation.
The smash-and-grab robbery at the MAK comes less than two months after another high-profile jewelry theft at a European museum.
In the early morning hours of July 5, thieves broke into the Musée Lalique, a museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, France, that’s dedicated to the works of French jeweler and glassmaker René Lalique.
They smashed multiple jewelry display cases and stole 27 pieces designed by Lalique worth about $5.1 million. The suspects remain at large, and the jewelry has not been recovered.
The museum has yet to reopen, as it struggles with the cost of recovering from the heist. On Monday, the Musée Lalique website stated that the museum will remain closed until the end of September, at least.
In October 2025, thieves stole eight “priceless” jewels from the famed Louvre museum in Paris in broad daylight.
Authorities made multiple arrests in the case, but the jewelry has not been recovered.
At MAK, the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition reopened Friday, the day after the theft.
In a statement shared with National Jeweler, MAK General Director Lilli Hollein said the theft of the necklace has hit the museum “hard” but noted that security personnel did what they were trained to do: they safely evacuated visitors from the exhibition halls and avoided direct confrontation with the perpetrators.
“Considering the incidents at major museums in recent years, we took this [exhibition] as an opportunity to thoroughly review our own security measures at the museum in general,” Hollein said.
“Together with our partner Van Cleef & Arpels, we then developed a plan specifically for this exhibition, took security issues very seriously, and carefully prepared all security measures. When this armed incident nevertheless occurred, our staff reacted calmly, followed the established procedures, and acted appropriately. Fortunately, no one was injured. That is the most important thing.”
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