Half a year after the spectacular gold theft in Manching, the permanent exhibition of the Celtic and Roman Museum reopened on Tuesday. As the museum announced on Friday, it had been closed since the burglary in November. At that time, previously unknown perpetrators had stolen 483 Celtic gold coins and three other coins during the night. Because the alarm system had been tricked, the loss was only noticed hours later.
“The theft hit us hard and is still having an impact today. After all, the gold treasure was one of the museum’s highlight exhibits,” Manching’s Mayor Herbert Nerb (Free Voters), who is also chairman of the sponsoring association, was quoted as saying in a press release. Nevertheless, we now want to look ahead. A new special exhibition on antiquity in Bavaria is planned for June.
Before the reopening of the permanent exhibition, the museum had implemented “extensive repair and upgrading measures”. The showcases, some of which were destroyed during the burglary, remain locked.
The exhibition has to do without the more than 2000-year-old Celtic treasure, after all there is no trace of the perpetrators or the loot. The gold could have been melted down long ago. The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) is currently checking around 2,000 key Telekom officers, i.e. people who could have gained access to a Telekom building before the crime. “It will take a while,” said an LKA spokesman on Friday. Before the burglary, the perpetrators had cut several cables in a telecom distribution center and thus bypassed the museum’s alarm system. The LKA now considers it “unlikely” that a criminal clan is behind the theft.