Police say they dragged a car and arrested two Belgians in their 20s after the four elegantly dressed thieves staged the European Fine Arts Exhibition (Tefaf) in the southern city of Maastricht on Tuesday. Dramatic images on social media showed the robbers threatening people with weapons, before fleeing with an unknown amount of what the police called “loot”. The venue was evacuated, but visitors later returned to the exhibition, which has been watched by tens of thousands of people for several days. No one was injured, police said. “A stable was attacked, they fled and we started the investigation,” said Wim Cohenen, a spokesman for the Limburg provincial police. “There were four suspects, two were arrested.” The Dutch media reported that the showcase contained jewelry with diamonds and other items from the London jewelry store Symbolic & Chase. There was no comment from the company. Police confirmed in a statement that “jewelry was stolen”, adding: “Additional details about the theft are not provided at this time.” Officers launched a massive search with a helicopter and reconnaissance dogs and shortly afterwards arrested the two men, aged 22 and 26. “These two people were driving a gray vehicle with a Belgian license plate. “This car overturned. Their possible involvement is still under investigation,” he said. The art exhibition is one of the largest in Europe and includes hundreds of works, including a 17th-century drawing by an old Dutch craftsman for sale for 1 million euros (60 860,000). Social media videos showed the four men – all wearing straight hats, glasses and smart blazers – amid scenes of chaos at the art exhibition. One knocked on the jewelry box at least 12 times while the alarms rang. Finally he broke the glass, reached out to get something before putting it in a bag. Two of the men brandish something that looked like a gun to a passerby, who tried to intervene using a large glass vase full of flowers before turning back. The men then ran in front of a puzzled old man who had been sitting near a bench throughout the drama. A visitor, Jos Stassen, told the Dutch public television station NOS that he had gone to the exhibition on Tuesday to see the art in peace. “Suddenly I heard a lot of noise and I turned around and suddenly I saw these men,” he said. “One started beating and the others kept people away, scared everyone. I also saw a gun. It went very fast and lasted very little, but I still tremble a little. “ The general manager of the exhibition, Bart Drenth, said that the owners of the broken kiosk were “very shocked”, the Dutch news agency ANP reported. He said the report’s security protocol worked well despite the fact that armed robbers were able to enter, adding: “Police were at the scene within minutes.” A Tefaf spokesman said in a statement that “its security forces worked quickly to disarm one of the perpetrators”, adding: “No one was injured during the incident.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST The phrase “Peaky Blinders” became a trend on social media in the Netherlands after the raid, because the hats worn by the suspects resembled those of the British police drama of the same name. This is not the first time the report has been targeted by criminals. A ring and a diamond necklace worth 860,000 euros belonging to a jeweler from London were stolen at the exhibition in 2011. The Netherlands has also experienced a series of thefts of works of art, with paintings by Van Gogh and Frans Hulls that were taken in burglary in 2020.
