国際アートフェアで白昼の宝石強盗　オランダ

【マーストリヒトＡＦＰ＝時事】オランダで開催中の国際アートフェアに２８日、武装集団が白昼堂々押し入り、来場者の目の前で展示ケースをハンマーでたたき割って宝石を強奪した。（写真はオランダ・マーストリヒトで開かれた美術・骨董市「ヨーロピアン・ファイン・アート・フェア」の会場入り口付近で警戒に当たる警察官ら）
　現場は、南部マーストリヒトで開かれている欧州最大規模の美術・骨董（こっとう）市「ヨーロピアン・ファイン・アート・フェア（ＴＥＦＡＦ）」で、小ぎれいな服装の４人組が強盗に入った。ソーシャルメディアに投稿された画像には、一行が拳銃のような物で来場者を脅し、物品を奪って走り去る様子が捉えられている。
　リンブルフ州警察は「宝石類が盗まれた」と発表したが、被害総額や詳細については明らかにしていない。負傷者はいないという。
　警察はＡＦＰに対し、窃盗団はブースを襲撃した後逃走しており、現在も行方を追っていると述べた。容疑者は４人で、うち２人の２０代のベルギー人が逮捕されたという。
　来場者は会場から一時避難したが、現在は通常通り開場されている。フェアには数日間で数万人が訪れる見込み。
　オランダの報道によると、被害に遭った展示ケースには英ロンドンの宝飾店シンボリック・アンド・チェースのダイヤモンドなどが入っていた。
　同フェアが窃盗事件に見舞われたのは今回が初めてではない。２０１０年にもロンドンの宝飾店が所有していた８６万ユーロ（現レートで約１億２０００万円）相当の宝石類が盗まれている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/29-14:02）

Flat-cap wearing armed robbers staged a brazen daylight raid on an international art fair in the Netherlands Tuesday, smashing a jewellery case with a sledgehammer in front of terrified visitors.
Police said they pulled over a car and arrested two Belgians in their twenties after the four smartly dressed thieves held up the TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in the southern city of Maastricht.
Dramatic social media images showed the robbers threatening people with what appeared to be handguns before running off with an undisclosed amount of what police called loot.
The venue was evacuated but visitors were eventually let back into the fair, which draws tens of thousands of people over several days. No one was hurt, police said.
A stall was raided, they fled and we started the search, Wim Coenen, a spokesman for Limburg province police, told AFP. There were four suspects, two were arrested.
Dutch media said the display case contained diamond jewellery and other items from London jeweller Symbolic and Chase. There was no comment from the firm.
Police confirmed in a statement that jewellery was stolen. Additional details about the loot are not being provided at this time.
- 'Car pulled over' -
Dutch police launched a huge search involving a helicopter and sniffer dogs and arrested a 22-year-old and a 26-year-old man nearby, both from Belgium, shortly after.
These two persons were driving a gray vehicle with a Belgian registration number. This car was pulled over... Their possible involvement is still under investigation, it said.
The TEFAF fair is one of the biggest in Europe, and features hundreds of works, including a 17th-century drawing by a Dutch Old Master on sale for one million euros.
Videos on social media showed the four men -- all wearing flat caps, glasses and smart blazers -- amid scenes of chaos at the art fair.
One struck the jewellery case at least 12 times while burglar alarms wailed.
He finally smashed through the glass, reaching in to pick up something before putting it into a bag.
Two of the men brandished what appeared to be weapons at a bystander, who tried to intervene using a large glass vase full of flowers before backing off.
The men then ran off past a bemused elderly man, who had sat nearby on a bench throughout the drama.
- 'Still shaking' -
Visitor Jos Stassen told Dutch public broadcaster NOS said he had gone to the exhibition on Tuesday to look at the art in peace.
I suddenly heard a lot of noise and I turn around and suddenly saw those men, he said.
One started beating and the others kept people away, scared everyone. I also saw a weapon.
It went very fast and it lasted a very short time but I'm still shaking a little bit.
The fair's general manager Bart Drenth said the owners of the smashed booth are very shocked, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.
He said the fair's security protocol worked well despite the fact that the armed robbers were able to walk in, adding: The police were on the scene within minutes.
A TEFAF spokesman added in a statement to AFP that its security teams worked quickly to disarm an offender... Nobody was injured during the incident.
The phrase Peaky Blinders trended on social media in the Netherlands after the raid because the caps worn by the suspects resemble those in the British crime drama of the same name.
It is not the first time the fair has been targeted by criminals.
A ring and a diamond necklace worth 860,000 euros ($1.2 million at the time) belonging to a London jeweller were stolen at the exhibition in 2011.
The Netherlands has also seen a string of art thefts, with paintings by Van Gogh and Frans Hals taken in burglaries in 2020.