The Hardliners motorcycle club, founded in the Netherlands in 2019 in prison by former leaders of the Hells Angels (a criminal organization banned by the court), is reported to have been involved in the robbery of the Dacian treasure from the Drents Museum, according to RTL Nieuws.
According to the sources from the investigation, gang members recruited thieves and the robbery was ordered by figures in Romania’s underworld.
The Hardliners Club was founded in prison in 2019, at the initiative of former leaders of the already banned motorcycle club Hells Angels. Last year, the Hardliners were also banned by a decision of the Noord-Holland court, which found that within this club “crimes are promoted, facilitated and ordered”.
Sources close to the investigation say that, in the case of the robbery at the Drents Museum, Hardliners would have been involved in recruiting thieves.
They were promised 15,000 euros per person,” according to a source. One of the suspects may have even be a member of the Hardliners club.
During the robbery, the golden helmet from Coțofenești and three Dacian bracelets were stolen. A source close to the investigation is convinced that the art objects are still intact: “Clues show that the golden helmet was not melted down
It’s probably somewhere near Heerhugowaard, wrapped in a towel,” the source said.
Prosecutors did not give other details. “It’s an extremely sensitive matter,” said a source who added: “If there is talk of an order coming from a Romanian who would have ordered this, it could immediately trigger a diplomatic incident.”
Meanwhile, undercover investigators in the Netherlands posed as collectors to find out where the Dacian treasure that was stolen from the museum in Drents is.
They made an offer of almost half a million euros for the helmet from Coțofenești and for the stolen bracelets. This is how they found out that they were hidden and had not been sold or melted down.
The theft was committed in January, when thieves armed with explosives entered the Drents Museum and broke the windows to steal the helmet and three gold bracelets. They had been lent by Romania’s National Museum of Art. The director of the institution Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu was dismissed in the wake of the theft.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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