Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu on Sunday announced the organization at the Government level of a crisis cell for the efficient coordination of the recovery activities of the four stolen treasure pieces.

According to him, this crisis cell includes representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Romanian Police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.

„I have decided to organize a crisis cell 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. (…) In this regard, tomorrow I will order the sending of the prime minister’s control body to the Ministry of Culture to verify all the legal documentation based on which this exhibition was organized in the Netherlands. Moreover, the minister of culture, Mrs. Natalia Intotero, will have meetings tomorrow with the royal family and the Dutch PM on the sidelines of the events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp in Poland, where she will convey the firm message of the Romanian Government that these invaluable pieces of heritage be recovered as quickly as possible,” Ciolacu wrote on his Facebook page.

He also mentioned that he had discussed with the minister of the interior, Catalin Predoiu, to urgently send a team of forensic police officers to the Netherlands, to work alongside the Dutch authorities in the investigation carried out to recover the Romanian treasure.

„And I have requested that Romanian experts urgently travel to the Netherlands and ensure the rapid return of the other pieces of heritage that were the subject of this exhibition. It is a very serious situation, but this robbery, which must be resolved quickly, must not become fuel for the propagation of all kinds of conspiracy theories by those who want to obtain easy political capital. The treasure will return to Romania and all state authorities are working on this,” the prime minister wrote.

The Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Saturday that a criminal case had been started ex officio in the case of the theft of 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 in accordance with Romanian legislation and international standards regarding the organization of exhibitions.

AGERPRES