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