When they return to Romania the Coțofenești Helmet and the Dacian bracelets. The treasure, exhibited at the Museum of History
The repatriation of the Golden Helmet from Coțofenești and the two Dacian bracelets recovered following the theft from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands will take place next week, the Government announced on Thursday.
The helmet from Coțofenești and two of the gold bracelets recovered after the robbery at the Drents Museum will return to the country next week, and all the details about this operation will be provided by the Ministry of Culture, Ioana Dogioiu, the spokesperson of the Government, announced in a press conference on Thursday.
The repatriation process will be managed by an interministerial operative group, Dogioiu said.
The treasure will be exhibited for 10 days at the National History Museum, starting on April 21.
“For the first time since their return to the country, the helmet from Coțofenești and the two Dacian bracelets will be able to be seen again at the National History Museum of Romania, during an event organized on April 21, at 7:30 p.m. The moment will also be presented through the media, and later the artifacts will become accessible to the general public, both at the headquarters and in the regions of the country, through a dedicated campaign,” he said The Ministry of Culture, in a statement.
“The return of these pieces of heritage is a moment of symbolic reparation. Beyond their historical and archaeological value, they carry with them essential fragments of our past and of the cultural memory that we have the duty to protect and pass on”, stated the Ministry of Culture.
The theft of the Dacian treasure from the Drents Museum
The Coțofenești helmet, dating from the 4th century BC, and three Dacian gold bracelets were stolen in January 2025 from the Drents Museum in Assen, Holland.
The robbery lasted several minutes. The thieves used an explosion to break through a concrete wall of the museum and get inside. Within a minute, they broke the window with hammers, took the valuables and disappeared.
The Coțofenești helmet and two of the gold bracelets were recovered on April 2, 14 months after the robbery. The third Dacian bracelet is still missing.
“They were found buried” and “they were wrapped in a towel”, the former director of the Romanian History Museum, Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, who was fired after the robbery, told HotNews.
In this case, three men, identified as Jan B. (age 21), Douglas Chesley W. (age 37), and Bernhard Z. (age 35), are arrested and charged with theft and destruction of museum property.
The prosecutor's office in the Netherlands requested prison sentences of up to 66 months for the three suspects. The most severe punishment was requested for Bernhard Z., who refused a deal with the prosecutors. The other two suspects, Jan B. and Douglas Chesley W., reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office. Against them, prosecutors asked for a lighter sentence of 44 months in prison for each.
