A specialist museum in Doesburg, a city in the eastern Netherlands, has had its entire collection of silverware stolen. Its staff...

A specialist museum in Doesburg, a city in the eastern Netherlands, has had its entire collection of silverware stolen. Its staff have described the stolen objects as vital pieces of cultural history. On Wednesday morning at 4.30am local time, two men forced their way into the Doesburg Silver Museum, which is housed in the 13th-century Martini church. The thieves, caught on security camera footage that is now being examined by police, crowbarred open a door and shattered display cabinets. They then stole more than 300 pieces of silverware, worth tens of thousands of euros, according to museum staff. Among them was a precious collection of mustard pots amassed by the museum’s founder Martin de Kleijn. “The silver price is high... but for us it is of course far more than the silver price,” Ernst Boesveld—the chairman of the museum, which opened in 2021—told media. “It is about the stories behind every mustard pot, it is history and it is cultural heritage. We are enormously disappointed and angry.” Boesveld hopes the Doesburg perpetrators won't melt down the silver, because its monetary value is far greater when it is intact. https://lnkd.in/gd6EeBVh