Almost six months after their theft, old coins were returned to the Arkéos museum in Douai (North) Tuesday July 13. They were found at a receiver in Belgium in May. “It is a great relief to have recovered our treasure, the investigators found a needle in a haystack”, declared the community of agglomeration of Douaisis to theAFP.
The investigation still ongoing
Twenty-eight old coins were stolen last January from the Arkéos museum. Investigators have not yet identified the perpetrators of the theft committed on the night of January 20 to 21 of 31 Gallic, Merovingian, Carolingian pieces and other objects in or contained in a museum burial, according to a source.
The Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) of Hauts-de-France explained, the day after the break-in, that these objects of a “Invaluable heritage and scientific value” came in particular from an archaeological excavation carried out in 2011-2012 in Sin-le-Noble, a neighboring town of Douai.
A Belgian receiver judged to be “in good faith”
The Lille judicial police, in collaboration with the central office for the fight against trafficking in cultural goods and the Belgian services, raised awareness among numismatists, particularly in Belgium. One of them, contacted to acquire the parts, warned the police who were able to trace back in mid-May to a Belgian receiver, considered to be in good faith, according to the public prosecutor of Douai, Frédéric Teillet. There have been no arrests for the time being.
The archaeological museum-park Arkéos de Douai includes a museum depicting the life of this territory since prehistoric times and a park which plunges the visitor into a reconstruction of the year 1000.
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