A four-minute break-in has robbed a Spanish museum of part of its prized Bronze Age collection, with thieves escaping with gold jewellery and other ancient pieces before police reached the scene in Villena, Alicante province.
The stolen objects form part of the Treasure of Villena, one of Europe’s notable prehistoric gold collections. The trove contains almost 10 kilos of gold alongside bowls, bottles, bracelets and other artefacts believed to date to around 1,000 BC.
The Villena Museum confirmed that rings, bowls and bracelets were among the items taken during the early Friday morning raid. Authorities are still examining the collection to determine exactly how many objects are missing.
The thieves appear to have carefully timed the operation. At around 05:15 local time (03:15 GMT), alarms were triggered at a sports centre in the area, drawing police officers away from the museum, Spanish media reported.
Roughly five minutes later, the museum’s alarm was activated. The intruders then moved quickly through the building, taking the artefacts before getting away in only four minutes, ahead of the arrival of officers.
A spokesman for Villena town council described the raid as "super fast and super professional".
Villena Mayor Fulgencio Cerdán said the thieves "stole a large part of the treasure," specifically all the gold, El Pais reported.
The theft has caused deep shock in the town, where the collection is regarded as an important part of its history. Cerdán said the loss had left Villena "devastated".
"They've taken most of the treasure," the mayor said.
"I'm even trembling. The truth is that for those of us from Villena, this destroys us. It's part of our heritage, of our wealth," the mayor said.
The collection contains more than 60 objects from the Bronze Age. Among them are 29 bracelets, 11 bowls and three bottles, as well as other items made from silver, iron and amber.
The treasure was uncovered in 1963 by archaeologist Jose María Soler. The discovery was made when he found a vessel buried in a dried-out riverbed in Villena.
Despite the successful break-in, the town council said the museum’s security systems had worked as expected.
The council spokesman insisted there had been "no failure" by the museum.
"All security systems were activated."
The Villena robbery adds to a growing list of major museum thefts reported across Europe in the past year.
In October 2025, thieves carried out a daylight robbery at the Louvre in Paris, taking jewellery worth $102m (£75m). They fled the scene on scooters after a raid that lasted about eight minutes.
Last week, Italy’s culture ministry reported that four works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina had been stolen from a museum in Sicily. The works were described as being "of extraordinary value".
Italian police also said earlier this month that they had recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse valued at more than $10.4m (£7.6m). The works had been stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.