Case · Theft
The Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar
The 'Mona Lisa of sculpture' buried in a forest
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Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Benvenuto Cellini's golden Saliera — the only surviving gold sculpture by the Renaissance master — was stolen from Vienna in 2003 and recovered three years later, buried in a lead box in an Austrian forest.
The thief, Robert Mang, climbed scaffolding, broke a window, and simply walked off with the Saliera as alarms went unheeded. For years the case baffled investigators until Mang, tracked through a mobile phone used in a ransom attempt, led police to the buried treasure near Zwettl.
The recovery of the intact masterpiece was a rare happy ending for a work often called the 'Mona Lisa of sculpture.'