4:59 am: The two security officers on duty spot the burglars on camera and call the cops.
5:04 am: Police arrive at the scene, but there’s no trace of the thieves.
5:09 am: Sixteen police cars are dispatched throughout Dresden to look for the getaway car -- believed to be an Audi A6 sedan.
Around 5:15 am: Police are notified that an Audi A6 is burning in a nearby underground garage.
Monday morning: After the fire is extinguished, Dresden police search the museum and garage for further clues, but haven’t apprehended the criminals.
Bild, a daily tabloid, reported that the jewels are worth about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), without saying where it got the estimate. Museum officials have said the collection includes unique ensembles of diamonds that are of priceless art-historic value, declining to give a financial value.
Even as the scale of the loss became clear, some good news emerged: The thieves weren’t able to rip out all of the jewelry, some of which was sewn onto fabric lining the display cases. And one of the museum’s best-known treasures, the 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond, is on loan to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.