Thieves steal $4.3 million Van Cleef & Arpels diamond necklace from Vienna museum
Two unmasked men broke a display case with a hammer at Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts on Thursday afternoon, escaping with an Art Deco necklace once owned by Queen Nazli of Egypt as police conduct an international search.
The heist at the MAK
Two unmasked men entered the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna on Thursday afternoon, 27 August, after purchasing standard admission tickets. The perpetrators walked through several exhibition halls before approaching a glass display case shortly after 2:00 PM. Using a hammer, they shattered the protective glass in front of multiple visitors and snatched a diamond-encrusted necklace. Austrian police confirmed that one of the men was armed during the robbery. Both suspects fled the building on foot without being stopped, and no injuries were reported among staff or museum guests. Surveillance cameras inside the institution captured clear footage of both individuals.
Royal provenance and Art Deco design
The stolen artifact is an Art Deco diamond necklace designed in 1939 by French haute joaillerie maison Van Cleef & Arpels, which was founded at Place Vendôme in Paris in 1906. Queen Nazli of Egypt commissioned the piece alongside a matching tiara for the wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iranian Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became the Shah of Iran. Crafted from platinum, the necklace contains 673 round and baguette-cut diamonds arranged in a sunburst pattern. The entire piece weighs 40 grams and totals more than 200 carats in gemstones.
The jeweler documented the design as an arrangement of geometric motifs.
It was completed by a tiara featuring the same semicircular ornaments around which ribbons of platinum and diamonds wind.
Auction history and Vienna exhibition
Following the abolition of the Egyptian monarchy, an impoverished Queen Nazli sold the necklace at a Sotheby's auction in 1975 at age 80. The piece remained out of public view for four decades until it reappeared at Sotheby's New York in 2015, where it was sold for $4.3 million, equal to approximately €3.7 million today. It was later exhibited in Paris at the Muséum d'histoire naturelle in 2020, where it was targeted in an attempted theft. On 10 June 2026, the necklace went on display at the MAK as part of the "Glanzstücke" exhibition, a temporary presentation pairing roughly 500 items from Van Cleef & Arpels and the museum's permanent collection.
- Created by Van Cleef & Arpels for Princess Fawzia's royal wedding
- Sold at Sotheby's auction by former Queen Nazli in exile
- Sold at Sotheby's New York for $4.3 million
- Targeted in an attempted theft while displayed in Paris
- Goes on display in the Glanzstücke exhibition at Vienna's MAK
- Stolen from a glass display case at the MAK by two men
Investigation and museum response
The Vienna Regional Criminal Investigations Office took charge of the inquiry, launching both a national and international search for the two suspects. The Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that investigators are examining possible connections to an organized criminal syndicate based in the Balkans, though authorities have not formally confirmed this link. The MAK initially closed the "Glanzstücke" exhibition, which had been scheduled to run through 27 September, and opacified the shattered display case.
The museum released a brief statement regarding the incident.
The museum cannot at this stage provide any information regarding the ongoing investigation.
The theft follows earlier high-profile robberies across Europe, including the October 2025 theft of eight pieces from the French crown jewels at the Louvre in Paris, as well as the 2003 theft of Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera from Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, which was recovered three years later.
