Vienna thieves steal diamond necklace Egyptian queen wore at daughter's wedding to future Iran shah

Police say the robbers bought tickets to exhibition before smashing display case and snatching the precious jewelry, the latest high-profile heist to hit a European museum

VIENNA — Two men bought tickets to enter Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) before smashing a display case, grabbing a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace and walking away, police said Friday.

Austrian media said the Van Cleef and Arpels necklace, with 673 precious stones, was worth several million dollars. It is the latest in a series of high-profile heists to hit European museums.

Police said the two men did not wear masks, paid to enter the museum and were clearly seen on surveillance cameras in Thursday’s heist.

They “smashed a glass display case” with a hammer before “fleeing with the jewelry, in an unknown direction,” said a police statement.

The MAK museum confirmed the theft but said it would not comment while the investigation went ahead.

The necklace had been part of an exhibition devoted to the French designers Van Cleef and Arpels. Some 500 pieces had been on display since June.

A blue panel covers the area where a display case was smashed and a Van Cleef and Arpels necklace was stolen at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), in Vienna, Austria, on August 28, 2026. (Jeremy Audouard/AFP)

The exhibition is scheduled to end on September 27.

Despite the MAK announcing the exhibition would remain closed until further notice, the wing where the theft occurred reopened hours later.

AFP saw the smashed display case covered with a blue panel but no notice on it explained the theft.

Prince Shahpur Mohammed Biza, nineteen-year-old Crown Prince of Iran, married in Cairo on March 15, 1939, Princess Fawzia, sister of King Farouk of Egypt. (AP Photo)

Reminiscent of Louvre heist

The stolen necklace was designed for the former Egyptian royal family and was worn by Queen Nazli in 1939 for the marriage of her daughter Faiza to the future Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

On its website, Van Cleef and Arpels called the stolen piece a “triumph of white jewelry.” The French company did not immediately comment on the theft.

European museums have been hit by a series of spectacular thefts since thieves in October broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight, escaping in less than eight minutes with jewelry worth $102 million.

French police officers stand next to a basket lift used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19, 2025. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

Thieves on Thursday raided the Treasure of Villena — one of the greatest Bronze Age gold collections — at a museum in the Spanish city of Villena, taking most of the 50-plus mainly gold bracelets, bowls, bottles and other items on display.

Four works “of extraordinary value” by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy’s culture ministry said Sunday.

Two days earlier, Italian police said they had recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth over $10.4 million, which were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.