After the museum was burgled and the gold stolen in Manching, Upper Bavaria, the finds secured in the area have not yielded any new leads. "The colleagues have not yet evaluated everything, but at least there is nothing new to report as of the afternoon," said a spokesman for the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office on Saturday. The day before, the police had searched the area around the museum with a large number of forces, including metal probes, and seized several items that could be connected to the theft.

According to the previous investigations, the unknown perpetrators entered the Manching Celtic and Roman Museum early Tuesday morning in order to steal a more than 2,000-year-old gold treasure from the Celtic period. The burglars escaped with almost 500 coins. They were discovered in 1999 during an archaeological dig in Manching. According to the museum, it is the "largest Celtic gold find of the 20th century".

Material value of around 250,000 euros

The pure material value of the 3.7-kilo treasure is estimated at around a quarter of a million euros, the commercial value of the historical coins is in the millions - but it should be difficult to realize because the coins have a large number of individual characteristics that are well documented. Experts therefore fear that the perpetrators could simply melt down the gold and then sell it.

They had apparently acted in a highly professional manner: at the time of the burglary, the telephone network in the Ingolstadt suburb was also sabotaged. As a result, the telephone, internet and alarm system at the Manching Museum were paralysed.

The officials are also examining connections with similar cases from the past few years, such as the spectacular theft of jewels from the Green Vault in Dresden and the coin theft from the Bode Museum in Berlin.