Venice police chief says he is hunting skilled professionals, as resident likens them to ‘gentleman thief’ Vincenzo Pipino

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Italian police are trying to piece together how two audacious thieves stole millions of pounds of jewellery from a reinforced case at the Doge’s Palace in Venice before blending into crowds and making their escape.

The pair made off with earrings and a brooch owned by a member of Qatar’s royal family on the final day of the four-month Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajahs exhibition, which brought together a collection of five centuries of Indian craftsmanship.

Local police have called on the help of experts in Rome to try to establish how the pair managed to pull off the meticulously planned theft early on Wednesday, which involved deactivating an alarm system.

The alarm was only raised several hours later at Palazzo Ducale in St Mark’s Square.

Marco Odorisio, the police chief, said he suspected the thieves had previously scoped out the vast premises of the palace, which was once the residence of the former republic of Venice’s doges (rulers) and now attracts up to 4,000 visitors a day, before seizing their moment.

The declared value of the stolen items on customs forms was about €30,000 (£27,000), but police sources told Italian media they were probably worth millions.

“It was probably not an impromptu gesture,” Odorisio said. “The cases were supposed to be inaccessible and for this reason we need to understand the weaknesses [in the security system] in order to establish how they were able to commit the theft.”

One weakness could be the case, which was provided by the show’s Qatari curators.

Vito Gagliardi, the chief police commissioner, said the case had been opened “as if it was a tin can”.

“We are clearly dealing here with two skilled professionals who managed to pull off their feat despite all the display rooms being fitted with a … highly sophisticated [alarm] system,” he said.

The al-Thani collection comprises 270 pieces of Indian and Indian-inspired jewellery and precious stones, spanning 400 years from the Mughal period to the present. It was assembled by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani.

The exhibition was due to close on Wednesday, the latest stop in a tour that has brought the collection to the Grand Palais in Paris, the V&A in London, the Metropolitan in New York and the Miho Museum near Kyoto, Japan.

A source working for the authority that manages museums across Venice said cutbacks in security had left the city’s cultural heritage vulnerable.

“This particular collection of jewels was delicious for the thieves. They waited for the very last day, which was the perfect time to act,” the source said.

“But it is something that could happen every day in every museum in Venice, as security is lacking. Yes, we have all the devices and systems in place, but security has been compromised in recent years. Staff are under lots of pressure, but we need stronger vigilance.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marco Odorisio of the Venice police during the inspection at the Doge’s palace. Photograph: Andrea Merola/EPA

Marco Gasparinetti, who runs a residents’ group in Venice, suggested the thieves might have been inspired by Vincenzo Pipino, the only other person to have successfully pulled off a Doge’s Palace heist, in 1991. Pipino, 74, nicknamed “the gentleman thief”, was jailed for 25 years for 3,000 art thefts across Venice.

“He was a kind of genius, always able to find his way into the most secure properties,” Gasparinetti said.

“What happened on Wednesday required a deep knowledge of the palace and security measures. It was similar to a Pipino performance – no violence, very discrete and successful.”