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Monday, 17th September 2007 (4080 views)

Two golden horns, replicas of original Danish artefacts, have been stolen two hundred years after their originals met a similar fate.

According to Bloomberg, the horns were stolen from the Museum of Jelling, located in southern Denmark, at 04:30 local time.

Commissioned in the 19th century by King Frederik VII, the gold-plated replicas were based on drawings of the originals and were on loan from the Danish National Museum.

"This robbery has a tremendous effect on Danes, who all know of the robbery of the originals in 1802," said the head of the national museum, Carsten Larsen, in a telephone interview with Bloomberg Television.

The original solid gold horns were discovered separately in a Danish field, and date from 400 B.C.

Famously stolen in the 19th century, the horns were melted down into jewellery and coins in what is considered Denmark's most notorious robbery.

The theft of the original horns is described in the historic Danish poem The Golden Horns by Adam Oehlenschlaeger and studied by Danish schoolchildren.

 

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