Thieves carried out a highly professional smash-and-grab raid on the Villena Museum in eastern Spain on Thursday morning. The target was the Treasure of Villena, a stunning collection of Bronze Age gold artifacts described as one of the world's greatest prehistoric troves and the most important of its kind in Europe.
The heist was executed in under four minutes before the museum opened. The thieves smashed through a window and bulletproof glass to access the collection. Police believe the operation involved several people and vehicles.
To distract security forces, the thieves triggered a false alarm at a nearby sports centre on the outskirts of Villena. While the exact number of missing items is not immediately known, reports indicate that almost the entire collection was swiped, including 59 prehistoric pieces from the trove of 66 mostly gold objects. The collection is valued at at least €1.7 million.