DARING thieves who allegedly swiped a 600-diamond necklace worth an eyewatering £3million are the subject of a major international manhunt.

Two unmasked men were captured on CCTV during the spectacular smash-and-grab heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna.

CCTV captured two suspects accused of swiping a £4million necklace

The more than 200-carat necklace was worn by Egyptian Queen Nazli in 1939 for the marriage of her daughter to the future Shah of Iran

They are accused of shattering a glass display case with a hammer in broad daylight before making off with a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds.

Originally designed for Egyptian royalty, the high-end bling was on loan to the museum as part of an exhibition on the jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels.

Police released photos of their two suspects, who they say made a dash toward Vienna Stadtpark, just south of the museum, after the heist.

One of the perpetrators was believed to be carrying a real firearm, they added in an appeal for witnesses.

Lilli Hollein, MAK general director, said: “The theft of a highly valuable piece of jewellery has hit us hard.”

She added that special security measures had been taken for the glitzy exhibition and that they had been taken “very seriously”.

Hollein said that staff acted as trained during the “armed incident” and that no one had been injured.

Security measures have been ramped up in recent years, “particularly in light of the incidents at major museums,” she added.

The daring heist took place at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts

Visitors look at exhibits near a blue panel covering the area where a display case was smashed

Europe has been plagued by a string of similar high-profile heists lately.

Only this Thursday, a trove of prehistoric jewellery and artefacts was pilfered from a Spanish museum.

It came after four “priceless” Renaissance paintings were stolen from a museum in Sicily only a fortnight ago.

Days earlier, Italy’s specialist art-crime unit recovered three masterpieces by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse.

The paintings, worth a combined €9million (£7.8million), were snatched from a museum near Parma in March during a lightning raid lasting just minutes.

Last October, a gang brazenly stormed the Louvre in Paris and made off with historic jewellery worth a staggering €88million (£75m).

Europol has said that museum heists were becoming “increasingly aggressive, with a shift towards violent and forceful methods”.

The agency added that this change in modus operandi could indicate that “new criminal networks” are getting into the game.

The necklace stolen on Friday was described as a “triumph of white jewellery”.

It was work by Egyptian Queen Nazli in 1939 at the the marriage of her daughter Fawzia to the future Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

When it was auctioned a decade ago, it had an estimated value of between £3-4million.

Police dog units have since been deployed in Vienna and the surrounding area as forensic experts analyse evidence and CCTV footage.

The exhibition has since been reopened.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16915852/jewel-thieves-diamond-royal-necklace-heist/