Valuable 673-Diamond Necklace of Queen Nazli Stolen in Bold Daytime Museum Heist in Vienna

A historic diamond necklace containing 673 stones that previously belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt has been stolen during a daytime heist at a museum in Vienna. Designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, the piece was originally created for Queen Nazli of Egypt to wear at the 1939 wedding of her daughter Princess Fawzia and the then Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Due to its royal connections, the necklace was valued at approximately $4 million before being stolen from the Museum of Applied Arts in the Austrian capital. The crime took place on Thursday during regular exhibition opening hours, prompting an immediate police manhunt. According to police statements, two men smashed a display case and escaped on foot.

Sotheby’s previously valued the platinum and diamond piece—which weighs a total of 200 carats—between $3.6 million and $4.6 million at a 2015 auction. This incident marks the highest value art heist in Vienna since Benvenuto Cellini’s gold-and-enamel Saliera was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 2003 and later recovered three years later.

The robbery has intensified scrutiny regarding security at European museums, following the high-profile theft of roughly $100 million in jewels from the Louvre in Paris last year. Additional recent thefts include ancient gold pieces taken from a museum in the Spanish town of Villena, overseen by Mayor Fulgencio Cerdan, as well as historic losses from the Green Vault in Dresden and the Bode Museum in Berlin.

Europol recently issued a warning about a rising trend of violent museum robberies targeting gold and jewels that can easily be melted down or broken apart. The exhibition, titled Prime Pieces: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewellery x Masterpieces from the MAK Collection, was being hosted at the Museum of Applied Arts on Vienna’s Ringstrasse.