Museum visitor questions security after Vienna MAK necklace robbery

A visitor who witnessed the robbery of a necklace worth millions at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, known as the MAK, has criticised what she described as inadequate entry checks, ORF reported. She also said no one appeared to attend to the attackers or guard the damaged display case immediately afterwards.

The two men entered the museum’s “Glanzstücke” special exhibition on Thursday carrying a pistol and a hammer. They smashed a display case and stole the necklace. Visitors must now pass through a metal detector.

Witness Sonja T. said she had already been surprised when entering the exhibition because staff handed out torches in the darkened rooms. She said employees had not checked what she was carrying, the contents of her bag or its size.

Later, she heard loud, muffled banging that continued for several minutes. A visitor then told her that someone was breaking a display case. Sonja T. said she wondered why there had been no alarm.

When she returned to the shattered case, she said she still believed it might only have been an attempted robbery because there was no audible alarm and no staff member present. She also said the case remained unattended after the robbery, even though earrings were still inside.

The visitor said no one questioned her at the museum and that she left the exhibition hesitantly. After learning from media reports what had happened, she contacted police that evening, she told ORF and the newspaper Die Presse.

MAK Director General Lilli Hollein defended the museum’s security arrangements, saying the highest security standards had been followed and specially trained external security staff had been deployed.

The museum said it was taking the visitor’s account seriously and had invited her to discuss what she observed and contribute to the investigation. It said the absence of an audible alarm did not mean that no alert had been issued and that police had been notified immediately.

A MAK spokeswoman said the museum could not disclose the specific security and alarm procedures because of the ongoing investigation and security considerations. External security experts have been brought in to help clarify what happened. The exhibition has reopened.