Five men were convicted of a multi-million theft of jewels in one of the biggest art heists in modern history.
The notorious masked criminal gang made off with 21 pieces of jewellery containing more than 4,300 diamonds from the Green Vault Museum in Dresden, Germany, in November 2019.
The 18th-century jewels – which included a jewelled brooch, the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, and a diamond-encrusted sword – had a total insured value of £98.9 million ($113.8 million).
The men, who have not been named due to German privacy laws but are aged between 24 and 29, were sentenced to between four and six years in jail.
The Dresden state court convicted them of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson. One defendant was acquitted.
They meticulously planned their crime with several visits to the museum beforehand.
The Berlin gang cut the power supply to street lights outside the museum by causing a fire just before the break-in.
They then slipped into the museum through previously cut and re-taped bars on a window, and broke display cases with an axe.
After their heist they sprayed a fire extinguisher to cover their tracks, set fire to a car in a nearby garage, then fled to Berlin.
But the group were caught a few months later following raids on the German capital.
Four of the defendants admitted to the crimes in January, as part of a plea bargain which saw most of the stolen jewels returned.
The fifth defendant admitted only to the procurement of objects to assist with the crime, such as the axes.
Many of the items were however badly damaged and some are feared to never be returned, including a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony.
The Green Vault dates back to 1723 and is one of the world’s oldest museums, which contains the treasury of Augustus the Strong of Saxony.
Some of the other biggest hauls in history include the Antwerp diamond heist, which was dubbed the ‘heist of the century’ and known as one of the largest robberies in history.
Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewellery in Belgium in 2003 at a value of more than £79 million ($100 million).
And last year an audacious 27-minute robbery in northern California, USA, was also hailed as one of the largest jewellery heists in history.
It’s estimated the mob got away with up to 30 bags containing an unknown number of individual pieces worth around £83 million ($100 million).
