Germany museum heist: criminal gang confesses to stealing Dresden Green Vault jewels worth US$120 million
- Rabieh Remmo, one of six on trial, told court he and accomplice broke into Green Vault museum, smashed display cases with axe; over 40 other people still wanted
- German media dubbed theft the biggest art heist in modern history; diamond-ridden valuables from Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong’s collection were taken
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Three members of a notorious criminal gang have confessed to stealing priceless 18th-century jewels from a German state museum.
Rabieh Remmo, one of six defendants, told the regional court in Dresden on Tuesday that he and an unnamed accomplice broke into the city’s Green Vault museum in a brazen nighttime raid in November 2019.
The 29-year-old said they smashed the glass of the display cases “with an axe” and jammed the jewellery in a sack they brought with them, in a statement as part of a sentencing deal.
The accomplice then used a fire extinguisher to destroy any traces of their DNA.
The group, which had cased out the museum on two previous trips, fled in a getaway car to a parking garage where they set fire to the vehicle to cover their tracks before returning to Berlin.
“My contribution to the crime was larger than I first said,” Remmo admitted, following a partial confession last year. “I was, myself, in the rooms of the Green Vault.”
Two fellow accused, Wissam and Mohamed Remmo, also told the court they had taken part in the spectacular heist, in statements read by their lawyers.
But both said they had not been inside the museum, but rather stood watch and took receipt of the stolen goods as well as the tools used in the break-in.
They said the idea was hatched after a younger acquaintance “came back from a field trip to the Green Vault in Dresden raving about the green diamonds on display there”.
A fourth defendant said he would issue a statement at the next hearing on Friday as part of a deal arranged between defence lawyers and the prosecution and approved by the court last week.
In exchange for their confessions and the return of the most of the precious jewels, the defendants are to receive softer sentences.
A fifth suspect has, however, rejected the deal while the sixth defendant has told the judges he has an alibi for the day of the heist.
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Last week the court recommended jail sentences of several years for stealing the loot worth at least 113.8 million euros (US$123.1 million at the current rate), although it is seen by the museum as priceless.
The damage caused in the break-in has been put at more than 1 million euros, with the German media dubbing the art heist the biggest in modern history.
The judges proposed prison time ranging from four years and nine months to six years and nine months as part of the arrangement with the lawyers that led to some of the stolen valuables being recovered from a river in mid-December.
The thieves grabbed 21 pieces of jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong, which was created in the 1700s, encrusted with more than 4,300 individual diamonds.
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Some of the pieces are still missing, including a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony, while many of the pieces are badly damaged.
The jewels included a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulder piece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, itself worth millions.
“I didn’t keep the loot – I didn’t have access to it. I don’t know what happened to it,” Rabieh said on Tuesday. “I did all I could to ensure that what was left came back to Dresden.”
The men on trial are members of the so-called Remmo clan, an extended family known for ties to organised crime in Germany.
Some 40 people are still wanted and believed to have been involved in the heist.
Additional reporting by dpa
