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Author Topic: Massive Numismatic Robbery  (Read 7770 times)

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Offline GMoneti

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Massive Numismatic Robbery
« on: February 03, 2006, 09:17:19 pm »
The Tarnovo Museum of Archaeology in Bulgaria was robbed a couple of days ago.  It is really terrible news.  The thiefs had focused mainly on coins, from which there were plenty of there.  Here is an article from a Bulgarian Newspaper: 

Daring Robbery Stuns Tarnovo
The theft has been commissioned by collectors, policemen say


"The culprits of the robbery in the Tarnovo Museum of Archaeology will never be found, because obviously a lot of people have been involved in it," say numismatists who frequent the regular auctions held at the Poltava complex. According to them, the elimination of the alarm systems and the breaking of the doors' locks wouldn't have been possible without the participation of a museum's employee.
The numismatists are explicit that up to two hours after the robbery the finds possibly left the country, because most probably they had been commissioned by a certain client.
The price of the stolen items amounts to 5 million levs (1 euro = 2 levs,) estimated the investigators of the case. The theft was established on February 2 at 10 a.m. when one of the curators entered the safety vault to add new items.
Among the missing finds are 385 coins and pieces of jewelry from the Arbanassy Fund of the museum dating back to the 17th century. The coins are made of gold, silver and bronze and the jewelery - earrings, bracelets, etc. - are made of glass, bones and nacre. The thieves were obviously especially interested in gold coins of ancient origin.
Some 70 tetradrachmas from the time of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great found during the excavations near the village of Samovodene are also among the stolen items. The thieves have taken bronze ancient coins found near Nicopolis-ad-Istrum and the villages of Kamen, Dimcha and Dolna Oryahovitsa.
A donation from a famous banker consisting of 100 coins, one of which is unique and really priceless (nobody dares to estimate its value), is among the missing treasures. [/i]

The Bulgarian version is a bit longer and mentions that 4000 denarii were also stolen among other things.  The museum has digital images of its collection, which it has given to the police. It is very sad, because most likely none of these coins will ever be back in the museum.  Still, I hope some of these images will be published soon, as some of these coins are going to come to the world market for sure.  Happy news for those who don't care, I guess...

Georgi
Georgi

Offline Corduba

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2006, 04:39:08 am »
This is a very sad new. I hope that we can see coins images very soon and they don´t go to the market. Of course i hope the police catch the thieves soon and if there is somobody behind they catch too.

Ignacio.








Offline Joe Sermarini

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2006, 10:27:58 am »
I believe pubishing the digital images in FORVM's lost and stolen coins gallery would make sale on eBay or other sale on the internet impossible.  Request our Bulgarian members contact the museum and make this suggestion. 
Joseph Sermarini
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Offline GMoneti

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2006, 04:08:14 pm »
Joe,

That could be helpful.  I can't find the museum's info online, but I'll call Bulgaria to see if I can get to them. 

Georgi
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Offline esnible

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2006, 11:47:34 am »
I recently read The Rescue Artist by Edward Dolnick.  It is about the theft of The Scream from a museum in Norway and about art theft in general.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0060531177

The author and the art theft experts in the book claim that art is never stolen on commission from rich clients.

It seems that thieves steal things that are valuable and easy to steal.  They don't think about selling them until later.  The paintings discussed in the book were so famous that no one could display them in his home and expect to get away with it, so they ended up being used as collateral in drug smuggling.

These coins might be sellable, if the theives manage to sell them before photos start circulating on the Internet.  GMoneti, did you ever get a list or photos of the stolen coins?  We should circulate the images.

The museum's web site, [ http://www.jicabg.com/museum/velikotarnovo-e.html ], gives an email address of rimvt@yahoo.com but does not mention the theft at all.

Offline GMoneti

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2006, 09:16:12 pm »
I e-mailed the museum at that address a long time ago, offering to do just that if they can provide pictures or point me to a source.  I got no reply from them.   I asked someone in Bulgaria whom I know if they can get more info about it, since they know a person working in a different museum.  I haven't given up, but the whole issue seems to get covered up already...no news about it or detailed info about what's missing. 

There is definitely something shady going on in the museum.  The director of the museum, Hristo Haritonov (author of several numismatic books) was being blamed for the robbery since he was supposedly the only person who knew the code to the vault, and the security company said their system was not breached.   Whether he had to do anything with it or was a scapegoat is not clear.  What is really bad is that responsibility is being exchanged like a hot potato and at the end nobody (or the wrong person) will be held accountable, and the treasures lost forever.  What was really funny was that the security company said they did not know they are securing a building that contained something valuable.   ;D  In any case, if there are any other Bulgarians on this forum, who live in Bulgaria (or anyone else), please try to find more about it.  Hopefuly we will get some pictures at least before it's too late.

Regarding the theory that such robberies are not commissioned by rich cients, I am not so sure about that.  I agree that very famous stolen objects can't be displayed freely, but some people like to keep them in their secure places and enjoy them by themselves, without showing them to anyone.  It's almost like a mental problem or some other sort of issue they have (or is it too much money to spend?).
Georgi

Offline slokind

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2006, 01:02:16 am »
From what I know, concerning a theft that actually got solved, and the objects recovered (not coins), the police, including Interpol, will ask them to lie low and not respond to our requests, however in this case well meant.
I remember, though, in the Post War period how UNESCO made subventions for the publication of, e.g., the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, and many fascicules were published.  This is one thing that the UN certainly can do and ought to do.   A few dozen SNG fascicules are very valuable when things like this happen.  For that matter, when I think of our Library of Congress putting all the FSA photos and all their daguerreotypes on line (what are federal governments for if not to run great big servers?) or the National Gallery of Art putting so many images from their collections on line, in high quality, too, and what the Fitzwilliam has done, I should like to suggest that a committee of the United Nations once again should help underfunded museums and underpaid scholars to put SNG on line and all on UN servers.  All those Bulgarian museums, yes, but why not start with Romania?  With collections as unpublished today as they were in Pick's time.  Why not Turkey?  It would be the best possible protection for these national collections.  Certainly UNESCO would need to ballyhoo it, just as they did the Post War subventions including coffee-table portfolios of Ajanta and of Egyptian painting.
It usually is collections that are well published that get recovered.  And these regional museums are largely depositories of hoards that need to be preserved for study.
Pat L.

Offline esnible

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2006, 10:22:14 am »

Offline GMoneti

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2006, 08:50:31 pm »
Ok, I finally got a picture of two of the 12, 000 (latest data) stolen coins.  11, 998 to go.  :tongue: It is from an online version of a Bulgarian newspaper which says that for right now pictures of the stolen coins are only available in catalogs.  I'll try to contact the paper to see if they have access to more pictures.  For now this is it-two Alexander staters from... Kallatis? Someone please identify and date these acurately, and I will post them in the stolen coins section.  Thanks.
Georgi

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2006, 10:38:56 am »
This report, in Italian, says the theft happened between January 6th and February 1st.

http://www.ansa.it/balcani/bulgaria/20060207182833816969.html

This report contradicts Bulgarian reports which reported the theft as Feb 2nd.

The number of stolen coins is given as 11,169, plus 60 pieces of ancient jewelry.

Offline esnible

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #10 on: March 17, 2006, 09:16:17 pm »
"Sofia Tightens Measures to Preserve Historical Treasures"

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=60530

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Massive Numismatic Robbery
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2006, 03:58:04 pm »
Not much use putting the latest secure lock on the stable door after the horse has bolted!
Robert Brenchley

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