Woman Charged After Nearly $2 Million Worth Of Gold Stolen From Paris Museum

A Chineses lady has been formally accused by a judicial authority in the French capital of Paris due to claims that she took away almost two million dollars in value consisting of gold nuggets from the urban area’s National Museum of Natural History, and among those were objects that trace their origins all the way back to the historical period known as the California gold rush.

The office belonging to the Paris Public Prosecutor made a public declaration on Tuesday indicating that the suspect who is twenty-four years old faced accusations involving theft that is categorized in a specific way along with involvement in a criminal plot after the robbery that occurred on September sixteenth. This person was taken into custody a couple of weeks following that event while in the city of Barcelona located in Spain, at a moment when she was getting ready to head back to her home country of China, according to the additional details provided.

The legal officials mentioned that during the early hours of September sixteenth, one of the curators at the museum received information from an employee responsible for cleaning about some scattered remains within the building as well as the absence of certain gold nuggets that are typically exhibited there, and these encompassed a nugget weighing eleven pounds originating from the country of Australia, various objects connected to the gold rush in California during the nineteenth century, plus another nugget that had been presented as a gift by the Russian Tsar Nicholas the First back in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-three.

A probe into the matter concluded that a pair of doors within the museum had been sliced apart using a tool known as a circular saw. Within the section dedicated to mineralogy, the showcase that held the nuggets in question had been forcibly accessed by means of a device called a blowtorch, as stated by the relevant authorities.

In the location where the incident took place, the people conducting the investigation discovered items including a screwdriver, multiple saws, the actual blowtorch itself, and a total of three containers filled with gas that were utilized for fueling the blowtorch, based on the information coming from the prosecutor’s office.

That same office indicated that video recordings from security cameras showed evidence of just one solitary individual making a forcible entry into the museum premises at approximately one o’clock in the morning on the very day when the theft happened.

The office of the Paris Public Prosecutor calculated that the monetary detriment resulting from the loss of those gold nuggets amounts to approximately one point seven four million dollars, at the same time as there was further harm valued at fifty-eight thousand dollars that resulted directly from the unauthorized entry. Moreover, it was noted that the value in terms of history and science associated with those gold items cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

The office of the Paris Public Prosecutor calculated that the monetary detriment resulting from the loss of those gold nuggets amounts to approximately one point seven four million dollars, at the same time as there was further harm valued at fifty-eight thousand dollars that resulted directly from the unauthorized entry. Moreover, it was noted that the value in terms of history and science associated with those gold items cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

During the specific moment when she was apprehended in the city of Barcelona, the individual under suspicion made an attempt to get rid of roughly two pounds worth of gold pieces that had been liquefied through melting, as further mentioned by the prosecutors.

Those same officials stated that the process of investigating this case is still in progress at the current time, because the law enforcement personnel are working to determine the exact fate of the items that were taken away and also to ascertain whether or not there might be any other people who assisted in the crime.

Within the nation of France, the particular accusation related to theft that is carried out in an organized manner can lead to a punishment involving incarceration for a maximum period of fifteen years.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli