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Austrian police are searching for two men who allegedly stole a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds from a museum in Vienna.

The necklace, which was on loan to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), reportedly once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt. Police released images of the suspects captured by security cameras during the theft and appealed to members of the public for information that could help identify or locate them.

The two men reportedly entered the museum after buying tickets to the exhibition. During opening hours on Thursday afternoon, they allegedly smashed a glass display case with a hammer before taking the necklace and fleeing the scene. In an appeal for information, police said: “The perpetrators fled with the jewellery in an unknown direction.”

Officers searched parts of central Vienna and deployed a police tracking dog as they attempted to trace the suspects. Austrian newspaper Kronen reported that investigators believe the theft may have been carried out as a “contract job” for a criminal gang.

The stolen necklace was part of an exhibition that had been on display at the MAK since June. The exhibition featured more than 300 works associated with French luxury jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels. No one was injured during the incident, although several visitors were reportedly present in the exhibition room when the theft occurred.

Museum documentation states that the necklace once belonged to Queen Consort Nazli of Egypt.

She reportedly wore the piece during the 1939 wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iran’s then Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became shah. The necklace was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for $4.3 million.

The MAK said the exhibition brought together about 200 “unique and rarely seen objects” from its own collection and pieces from the heritage collection of Van Cleef & Arpels, covering about 120 years of the jewellery house’s history.

Following the theft, a guided tour scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled, while the exhibition was temporarily closed.

The exhibition had been scheduled to run until September 27. The theft comes amid a series of high-profile robberies targeting European museums and cultural institutions.

In Spain on Thursday, thieves reportedly raided the Treasure of Villena, a collection of Bronze Age gold artefacts regarded as one of Europe’s most important prehistoric hoards.

Earlier this month, four significant works by 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in the Sicilian city of Messina.

Italian police also recently recovered three paintings by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a private museum near Parma. A recent Europol report warned that museum robberies in Europe are becoming increasingly violent, with criminals using weapons and heavy tools, including sledgehammers, axes and explosives, to target valuable cultural objects.

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Ex-Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has been found guilty of bribery in a corruption case linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the public prosecutor’s office said on Friday, August 28.

Moreno, 73, was sentenced to five years in prison and permanently barred from holding public office.

The attorney general’s office launched an investigation in March 2023, alleging that Moreno, members of his family and local and Chinese business partners were involved in a corruption network connected to the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant. The facility began operating in 2016 but has experienced technical problems since.

“Lenin Moreno’s conduct is consistent with the charges brought by the prosecution: the crime of bribery attributed to a public official,” said Judge Manuel Cabrera, head of the tribunal, while delivering the ruling.

The attorney general’s office said Chinese state-owned firm Sinohydro paid roughly $76.1 million in bribes between 2009 and 2018 through fraudulent consulting contracts. Moreno’s wife and daughter, as well as his two brothers and their wives, were also convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Cai Runguo, China’s former ambassador to Quito, received a five-year sentence.

Investigators alleged that the funds were moved through overseas accounts and shell companies in tax havens before reaching Moreno’s family and associates. Prosecutors said Moreno and close relatives received more than $1 million while he was serving as vice president from 2007 to 2013.

Moreno has consistently denied the allegations, insisting that he had no role in signing or overseeing the project’s contracts. “You’re looking in the wrong place. Look at those who signed the contracts, at those who had the habit of demanding kickbacks,” Moreno told the court during the hearing. Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, returned to Ecuador from Paraguay to face trial.

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Nigerian born British Moses Itauma’s world-title collapsed in the early hours of today, Sunday, August 30, 2026 (Nigerian Time) as he appeared to punch himself out in an extraordinary heavyweight contest against underdog Filip Hrgovic in London.

Itauma, 21, controlled most of the fight and scored a second-round knockdown but faded as his relentless output caught up with him.

Hrgovic weathered the storm and piled on the pressure in the ninth. With Itauma barely able to stand, his legs unsteady and body swaying before slumping in the corner, his team threw in the towel.

Itauma – who needed medical attention before leaving the arena on a stretcher – had been a heavy favourite after tearing through his first 14 opponents and was spoken about as heavyweight boxing’s next superstar.

“He is the best I have been in the ring with, but he needs more experience. I knew I was losing the round, but I knew that I had the pace in my favour. He needs more experience, but he is one of a kind,” Hrgovic said.

“From the first round, I saw his gassing out. He started fast. I knew he was going to gas out. I knew when my chance came I needed to push. That is what I did.”

With the vacant IBF title on the line, victory would have made Itauma the second-youngest world champion in the division’s history.

Instead, his inexperience began to show as his Croatian opponent – an Olympic bronze medallist whose only previous professional defeat came against Daniel Dubois – survived everything Itauma threw at him before completing a remarkable turnaround.

Hrgovic’s remarkable turnaround as Itauma shows inexperience
Hrgovic – wearing the red and white checks of his country – made his entrance first to a wall of boos, before the mood inside the O2 Arena flipped as Itauma emerged to a huge roar – taking his time and soaking up the reception.

The crowd had made its allegiances clear after a fiery build-up which included Itauma shoving Hrgovic, the Zagreb man slapping him back and plenty of verbal sparring.

Itauma came out with real intent, landing straight lefts from his southpaw stance. Hrgovic is known for his durability but struggled to keep pace with the Briton’s speed early on.

Early in the second, a right hook knocked Hrgovic off-balance and his glove touched the canvas. Oasis star Noel Gallagher and boxing legend Prince Naseem Hamed were among those watching as the crowd gasped at almost every Itauma punch, whether it landed or not.

But by the end of the third, Itauma – who had boxed just 26 professional rounds before his first world-title fight – was already breathing heavily.

There had also been questions over his chin, simply because it had never really been tested. Hrgovic began landing the occasional heavy shot but Itauma took them well and fired straight back.

A fight in the crowd momentarily took attention away from the action in the fifth before an Itauma uppercut in the closing seconds brought the focus back to the ring.

Itauma continued to fire combinations but Hrgovic was barely budging. A huge right landed on the bell in the sixth and another followed in the seventh, yet the Croatian simply walked through them.

The Briton was well ahead but, rather than box his way towards victory, he continued to chase the knockout. A flurry in the eighth backed Hrgovic on to the ropes and had him in trouble, but Itauma was grimacing between exchanges and looking increasingly spent.

By now the danger was clear. Hrgovic came out with renewed purpose in the ninth and landed a thudding right which sent Itauma staggering backwards, almost through the ropes.

The youngster somehow stayed upright but his legs had gone. Hrgovic continued to press and when Itauma slumped into his corner, exhausted and barely able to defend himself, referee Howard Foster waved off the contest as the towel came in.

Hrgovic admitted he had been “outboxed” but leaves London as Croatia’s first heavyweight world champion, with Frank Sanchez waiting as the IBF mandatory challenger.

A unification fight could follow, with Daniel Dubois holding the WBO title and set to face Fabio Wardley again in October.

For Itauma, this was supposed to be a coronation.

Instead, he leaves the O2 Arena with questions over whether the step up came too soon.

He has time to rebuild and there will be a strong feeling that, with a little more experience, this night could have ended very differently.

Londoner Dubois was stopped by Joe Joyce as an unbeaten 23-year-old before going on to become a two-time world champion. Itauma has even more time on his side.

“He’s an amazing fighter,” Hrgovic said. “I am the present. He is definitely the future.”

Promoter Frank Warren suggested Itauma was carrying a leg injury in the final round but backed him to return.

“Moses gave everything,” he added. “He has to go back to the drawing board and he can come again.”

The expectation around Itauma will not disappear entirely overnight but the aura of invincibility has gone.

BBC