The Ministry of Justice announces that it will mobilize all resources to support the steps agreed upon within the crisis cell organized on Sunday, at the request of PM Marcel Ciolacu, for the efficient coordination of the activities to recover the four stolen treasure pieces.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Justice, minister Radu Marinescu has been in contact with all the institutional factors involved and has initiated consultations with the prosecutor general from the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

„The Ministry of Justice will take all measures so that the judicial bodies prioritize and allocate all the necessary resources to investigate this crime against our state,” stated the minister of justice, quoted in the press release.

The Ministry of Justice specifies that the authorities have acted firmly to open a criminal file that would allow investigations to be carried out by the Romanian judicial bodies. Prosecutors will also initiate collaboration with their counterparts in the Netherlands.

„The Ministry of Justice is part of the crisis cell organized at the Government level for the efficient coordination of activities related to the recovery of the four pieces of treasure stolen from the exhibition organized at the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands. At the level of the Ministry of Justice, we will mobilize all our resources in supporting the steps agreed upon within this crisis cell,” the press release added.

The Prosecutor General’s Office informed on Saturday that a criminal case had been started, ex officio, in the case of the theft of the pieces from the Dacian treasure exhibited at the Drents Museum in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The gold helmet from Cotofenesti, dating from the 5th-4th centuries BC, as well as three Dacian gold bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, dating from the second half of the 1st century BC, some of the most important artifacts in Romania’s national heritage, were stolen following a „particularly serious incident,” the Ministry of Culture announced.

According to information provided by the management of the Drents Museum and the Dutch authorities, the break-in was carried out by using an explosive on the only exterior wall of the building.

All the stolen pieces had been secured according to the Romanian legislation and international standards regarding the organization of exhibitions.

AGERPRES