Two diamonds that were pinched from a Dresden museum last year have resurfaced after being offered to an security firm through the Darknet for £7.5 million.
The Dresden White Diamond and the breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle were two pieces thieved from Dresden’s Green Vault in late November 2019.
Israeli firm, CGI Group, told the German news agency dpa that two priceless stones were offered to them through the Darknet.
The suspects said they had used encryption techniques to make the emails tricky to track.They also requested payment in Bitcoin.
The Dresden White Diamond (left) and the breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle (right) were two pieces thieved from Dresden’s Green Vault in late November 2019
Stolen: A cabinet of 18th-century jewellery which was smashed open and looted by burglars at a German museum yesterday, causing an ‘immeasurable’ loss
Zvika Nave, CEO of CGI Group, told Deutsche Welle that the museum had hired his firm to track down the stolen stones.
According to the Green Vault museum, there is little evidence to support the security firm’s claims.
‘The company also did not establish contact with us,’ said Stephan Adam, the spokesman for the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD).
The SKD denied CGI’s role in investigating the theft and that they had received no communication from them about the offer.
In the weeks since the daring heist, authorities have not yet recovered any of the jewels plundered from Europe’s largest treasure collection.
After the raid in November, the Green Vault museum confirmed a list of the jewel-encrusted losses that were snatched during the spectacular heist.
The Dresden white, which is alleged to have been offered to the security company, is one of the most precious jewels in the collection of former Saxon ruler August the Strong.
The jewels were stolen after thieves set fire to a junction box, cutting power to the museum’s alarms, then managed to get through a small gap in a grille of a window on the ground floor