The golden helmet of Coțofenești, a rare Dacian artefact dating back to the 5th century BC, together with 3 Dacian gold cuffs, stolen last year from a museum in the Netherlands while it was on loan from the Romanian Museum of History, have been recovered. More details to follow but apparently they are in good condition.
This is excellent news to many of us, who feared the helmet might have been destroyed to avoid capture.
by faramaobscena
6 Comments
Vow! SiCG exciting and uplifting news!
Whoa, nice!
According to Dutch news media, two of the three gold cuffs have been recovered alongside the helmet, suggesting one cuff might still be lost. But the helmet is the most important object, of course!
A livestream started at 14.00 Dutch time (16 minutes ago), it is still ongoing but you can rewind: [https://nos.nl/livestream/2608774](https://nos.nl/livestream/2608774) The unveiling happens at the second white pip in the timeline, so to speak.
Edit: several suspects had been apprehended earlier. The Dutch prosecutors office seemingly struck a deal with one or more of the suspects, leading to the return of these three items via the defense attorneys of the suspects.
Edit 2: the helmet has been compressed a little bit, but can be restored completely. The two cuffs are in perfect condition. Edit 3: some previous Romanian restoration work has come loose too, but that too can be restored.
Wow that is a relief. I expected the artifacts were already melted down.
brilliant! was the gold mined locally? was it even mined or just found on the surface? I always find it fascinating to consider that for much of history a lot of gold was just sitting on the surface at specific points in the river bed, waiting for someone to find it and start a mini gold rush