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Crown with 1,800 gem stones stolen from museum in Lyon

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Crown with 1,800 gem stones stolen from museum in Lyon
Photo: AFP

A 19th century crown, encrusted with almost 1,800 gem stones, has been stolen from a museum of religious art in central France, the museum authorities have said.

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The thieves broke in overnight Friday and managed to overcome the "sophisticated security system" at the Museum of Fourviere in the city of Lyon, the museum said in a statement.
 
They got away with the Crown of the Virgin, the centrepiece of the collection, which was created in 1899 with 1,791 precious stones and pearls gifted by well-to-do Lyonese families of the day.
   
The value of the piece was put at "a little over a million euros". Each gemstone was painstakingly logged last year by a team of researchers, the museum said, a fact that will help trace each part of it.
 
The robbers got away with two other pieces from the museum's permanent collection, a ring and a chalice.
 
The museum, situated on a hill next to a basilica, was closed as investigations continued.
 
The museum displays treasures from the basilica which are  representative of the work of goldsmiths in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
 
 
 
 

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