Two Swedish gold-plated crowns were stolen

News24xx.com -  Swedish police are hunting down the perpetrators of theft of a number of gold-plated jewelry and gems belonging to the Swedish royal family stored in the cathedral building near the capital, Stockholm.

Two gold-plated crowns and two jeweled jewels, which were stolen missing, are relics of the 17th century.

The perpetrators stole the jewelry on Tuesday (07/31) afternoon when the cathedral located in Strängnäs, west of the city of Stockholm, was opened to the public.

The local news television channel, Aftonbladet, reported that the stolen jewelry was a legacy of King Charles IX and Queen Kristina in the early 1600s.

Witnesses told local media that they saw two men coming out of the cathedral before they fled on a motorboat on Lake Malaren - one of the largest lakes in the country.

An eyewitness, Tom Rowell, who is to be married in the cathedral building next week, told Aftonbladet that he saw two men running away from the building, then jumping onto a white motorboat and running away.

"I then contacted the police and told them that something had been stolen from the cathedral," he said. "I am sure they are thieves for seeing the signs."

"It is regrettable that there are people who steal from sacred buildings and historic buildings," Rowell said.

Swedish police have held large-scale operations to hunt down thieves, but so far have not produced results.

"At the moment, they are 1-0 up," Thomas Agnevik, police spokesman, told Aftonbladet.

Police officials and cathedral leaders claimed not to know the value of the stolen objects.

"It's too difficult to calculate. The stolen items are unique objects," said Agnevik.
Catharina Fröjd, who works at the Strängnäs cathedral, calls the theft "a heavy loss of cultural and economic value".