Investigators arrested four suspects in northern Germany in connection with the theft of hundreds of ancient gold coins from a museum in Bavaria last year, German authorities said Wednesday.
The arrests were made on Tuesday during a search operation in the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
According to investigators, there is “overwhelming evidence” in the case. During the investigation, a part of the gold treasure was presumably seized.
In November of last year, burglars broke into the Celts and Romans Museum and stole a treasure of 483 gold coins from around 100 B.C. and three other coins, with a total worth of several million euros.
The cache of gold coins was discovered in Manching, a town near Ingolstadt in Bavaria in 1999. The discovery was the largest Celtic gold find in the last century. It had been on public display since 2006.
The museum was only able to reopen the current special exhibition in December. The permanent exhibition remained closed until the end of April.
“The theft hit us hard and is still having an effect today,” said Manching’s Mayor Herbert Nerb at the reopening.