Bronze Age Treasures Taken in Swift Four‑Minute Raid on Spanish Museum

The operation at Villena Museum was “super fast and super professional,” a spokesman for the Villena town council said.

According to the city council, the robbery began with a diversion. Around 05:15 local time (03:15 GMT), alarms sounded at the nearby sports centre, drawing police there first, Spanish media reported.

The museum’s alarm triggered shortly after, at about 05:20. The thieves moved through the galleries and exited the building in just four minutes before officers arrived.

Villena Mayor Fulgencio Cerdán said the thieves “took a large part of the treasure,” specifically all the gold items, as reported by El País.

The museum’s collection, dating to roughly 1000 BC, consists primarily of gold objects, with additional silver, iron and amber pieces.

It comprises more than 60 Bronze Age artifacts, including 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles and various other items.

The town is “devastated,” Cerdán added. “They have taken most of the treasure.”

“I am even trembling,” he continued. “For those of us from Villena, this feels like a personal loss. It is part of our heritage, our wealth.”

The hoard was uncovered in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler, who found it in a vessel buried in a dried‑up riverbed near Villena.

A Villena council spokesperson maintained that there had been “no failure” on the museum’s part.

“All security systems were activated,” the spokesperson insisted.

Over the past year, a series of museum raids have occurred across Europe. In October 2025, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight, stealing jewellery valued at about $102 million (£75 million) before fleeing on scooters in an eight‑minute heist.

Last week, four works of “extraordinary value” by the Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina were taken from a museum in Sicily, according to Italy’s culture ministry.

Earlier this month, Italian police announced they had recovered paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth over $10.4 million (£7.6 million) that had been stolen from the Magnani‑Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.

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