GLASS ACT

Thieves Snatch Millions of Dollars’ Worth of Jewelry in Daring Dawn Heist

The masked gang smashed six display cases and made off with about 20 precious pieces before the police arrived.

Thieves stole roughly 20 pieces of jewelry worth around $4.5 million from a museum in France during a daring dawn raid on Sunday. The Lalique Museum, located in the northeastern town of Wingen-sur-Moder, is dedicated to Art Nouveau and Art Deco glassmaker René Lalique and opened in 2011. A group of masked intruders forced a door at about 5:30 a.m. and smashed open six display cases, sources close to a police investigation said. The haul was crystal jewelry with no precious gems and cannot be melted down, a second source added. The town’s mayor, Christian Dorschner, suggested that the culprits were “surely well informed to carry out this job in that way.” The break-in follows months after October’s sensational heist at the Louvre, one of the most iconic landmarks in the French capital of Paris, when thieves grabbed and made off with approximately $102 million worth of jewels in just under eight minutes.