Romanian MEP Victor Negrescu (S&D), Vice-President of the European Parliament, said on Wednesday in an exclusive statement to AGERPRES that he has taken up two new action avenues at European level - with Europol and the European Ombudsman - to support efforts to retrieve the Dacian artifacts stolen from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands.
''On the one hand, I sent a request to Europol to step into this matter with four concrete actions they can do. On the one hand, I am referring here to the mobilization of the unit tasked precisely with combating heritage crime. There is a Europol structure that effectively deals with such offenses and I have requested that this structure gets involved in this case and provides full-on support to the Dutch authorities, and makes available all the information it has,'' Negrescu said.
He added that he has also asked the Europol to issue a European alert, so that all European security agencies are involved in the process, but at the same time auction houses and private collectors are informed about what happened and that taking possession of these artifacts is illegal.
"I also asked Europol to make available to the authorities involved all the technical means at their disposal as regards digital traceability and analysis. Europol has important such resources and they have the possibility to monitor the black market in the area of cultural and art products and, to this effect, they can keep a sharp eye on any move they notice on the black market,'' explained the Romanian MEP.
He asked Europol to issue clear recommendations, so that such phenomena don't ever happen again.
The request addressed to the European Ombudsman started from public debates in Romania regarding the rather improvable cooperation, as the European Ombudsman has the authority to intervene. ''Here too, I asked that this structure facilitate a better cooperation between European structures, but also between the Netherlands and Romania on this subject, including between the authorities responsible for security. I also asked that the European Ombudsman check wether the European legislation has been applied in this regard, what were the limits and problems identified," mentioned Negrescu.
He expressed his willingness to work with the European Ombudsman on improving the legislation, but also on making sure that the European relevant legislation on dealers of stolen or illegally gotten artifacts is tightened. "I think we need to send a clear signal on the EU's behalf that this is not tolerable and that thieves of cultural and historical products will always be apprehended, and that they have no chance of gaining anything if they do this," concluded the Social Democrat MEP.
The iconic golden helmet of Cotofenesti, dated to the 5th-4th centuries BC, as well as three Dacian gold bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, dating from the second half of the 1st century BC, were stolen last weekend from the Drents Museum in Assen, in a heist in which the robbers used an explosive device to break open the only exterior wall of the museum building. All the stolen items had been insured in accordance with Romanian legislation and international standards regarding the organization of exhibitions.
On Saturday, the Prosecutor General's Office informed that a criminal investigation had been opened ex officio in the case of the theft of the prized Dacian treasure artifacts.
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