One of the most serious robberies National Historical Museum It was the theft of a collection of historical coins. Although this did not represent a great financial loss, it was a collection that had an important load of history, with an invaluable price.
These coins were on the ground floor of the Museum, located at 1600 Defensa Street, inside Parque Lezama, in San Telmo. The thieves sold them to a moderate price in different numismatic stores in the city of Buenos Aires between the February 11 and March 7, 2020.
History of the coins of the National Historical Museum
Almost 200 years ago, Bernardino Rivadavia and Manuel Belgrano agreed to the purchasing a coin collection on a diplomatic mission to Europe. In September 1823, the Government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata acquired them.
According to Damián Raimundo Salgado, an expert in numismatics, the collection had been purchased to achieve international support for the incipient process of formation of our National State. Some time later, a donation of coins of Greek origin and another collection from Manuel Ricardo Trelles, the founder of the General Archive of the Nation, further enriched this collection.
This one had a great historical, symbolic and cultural value for the national heritage. What no one expected was that they would be stolen and sold at a modest price.
How was the theft of the coins at the National Historical Museum?
The pieces were in a restricted access ground floor room of the museum. But how did the thieves get in there? They worked there as employees in the maintenance area years ago.
Between February 11 and March 7, 2020, they sold the coins at reasonable prices in different numismatic stores in the city of Buenos Aires, carrying out different operations under false names and ID numbers:
- February 14: 133 coins at 200 thousand pesos in Corrientes at 800.
- February 17: 5 coins at 15 thousand pesos in La Pampa at 2400.
- February 20: 100 coins at 60 thousand pesos and 800 dollars in Corrientes at 800.
- February 20: 19 coins at 30 thousand pesos in Corrientes at 700.
- February 26: 175 coins at 82,500 pesos and 1,900 dollars in Corrientes at 800.
- March 6: 189 coins at 160 thousand pesos in Corrientes at 700.
museum robbery
How they found out about the theft
What gave away the thieves is that in those stores where they sold part of the collection, some workers warned that they were valuable objects stolen that belonged to the museum.
Then they were arrested and prosecuted. The case was investigated by federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan and federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, who determined that there were six coin sales operations and one seventh attempt that proved the end of the band.
In the seventh operation the collector noticed that they were coins from the National Historical Museum and filed the complaint.
The greatest evidence that showed the guilt of the accused is phone calls where they talked about the coins: “You don’t want to enter from the front because they’re with the cameras, idiot, because it seems like the token jumped.”
What happened to the coins
The thieves took 948 coins and 621 were recovered. The sales of these pieces generated a total economic profit of 547,500 pesos and 2,700 dollars, although the pieces have an “incalculable” value.
Due to the missing 327 coins, Interpol launched a national and international alert that is still in force. However, researchers believe it is unlikely that they can be commercialized since they are a hot iron.
museum robbery
What happened to the criminals
The three thieves were charged with “unlawful association” and “theft and illicit trafficking of archaeological pieces – in the form of sale -“ and embargoes were placed on them until they covered the sum of 3,000,000 pesos.
Justice attributed them to the employees José David Melissare (59), his son Jonatan (31) and Cristian Basso (42) the theft under the “ant” modality of 948 historical coins. Eliana Galisteo (31), sister-in-law of a site worker, is also charged with its commercialization.
The prosecutions were confirmed because it is considered that “The defendants have maintained their rights since they regained their freedom.” and there is no indication of a risk of leakage or obstruction of the process.”
Source: Ambito
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