Theft at the Villa Giulia, Rome: Thieves distracted guards with smoke bombs to gain access to Etruscan Museum to steal 19th century jewelry

Castellani brooch (Talking Jewelry)

ARCA Lecturer Derek Fincham has written of Saturday's robbery of the Villa Giulia in Rome on his blog Illicit Cultural Property:

La Reppubblica reports today that the thieves broke into the museum on Saturday night through the back, locked the guards on duty in the gatehouse, and stole some jewelry from the 19th century Castellani collection.

The thieves reportedly used smoke bombs to distract the guards and to obscure the view of the security cameras. But they appear to have taken little. Most of the antiquities were unscathed, at least according to initial reports.

Earlier this month, blogger and jeweler Margriet Sopers (Talking Jewelry) described the permanent Castellani jewelry collection at the Villa Giulia as "archaeologically inspired" pieces of "colorful micro-mosaics and enamellings".

La Reppubblica reports (according to the Google Translation) that thieves used an ax to smash the display case of jewelry in the Hall of Gold (bilingual subscribers feel free to correct this translation).