The Green Vault

Dresden, 25 November 2019. At 4:47 in the morning, a fire is set in a street-side electrical distribution box on the Augustusbrücke side of the Residenzschloss — the royal palace of the Saxon kings. The fire is small but specific. It disables the streetlights. It darkens the area around the palace. Inside the palace sits the Grünes Gewölbe, the Green Vault, established by Augustus the Strong in 1723 — one of the oldest treasure chambers in Europe. Four men climb to a lower-floor window. Saw through the original iron grilles. Smash the reinforced glass with an axe. Enter the Pretiosensaal — the room of precious objects. Smash the display cases. Take twenty-one pieces of eighteenth-century Saxon royal jewellery — diamonds, emeralds, rubies, the Diamond Rose Order — by the handful. They are inside the building for less than five minutes. They leave through the same window, drop into a stolen Audi A6, drive to an underground car park miles away, and set the car on fire to destroy the forensic evidence inside. The trial at Dresden Regional Court closes on 16 May 2023. Five members of the Berlin-based Remmo clan are convicted; one is acquitted. Most — but not all — of the jewellery has been returned through a plea-deal recovery in December 2022. Some pieces remain unaccounted for. The museum's restoration team has been working continuously since. Maren and Ellis on the difference between a heist and a demolition. The Saxon kings spent three centuries assembling pieces of staggering fineness. Four men, in five minutes, removed twenty-one of them with axes.