|Vienna|4 min read
LILLI HOLLEIN, the director of Vienna’s Museum for Applied Art (MAK), has just been through the toughest six weeks of her career. On August 27th two armed thieves stole a platinum necklace bedecked with 673 diamonds, designed by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1939 for Queen Nazli of Egypt, from a special exhibition at the museum. Wearing no masks, they entered the neo-Renaissance building on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, bought tickets, wandered into the exhibition and smashed the armoured display case with 41 blows from a hammer they had hidden in their clothes. Snatching the necklace, valued at more than $4m, they made off on foot through the adjacent Stadtpark.