The operation at Villena Museum was “super fast and super professional”, a spokesman for Villena city council said.
The metropolis council said the theft started with a diversion. Around 05:15 native time (03:15 GMT), the alarms went off at the native sports activities centre, sending police there first, Spanish media reported.
The museum’s alarm then went off around 05:20. It took the thieves just 4 minutes to sweep through museum and depart the building before officers arrived.
The Mayor of Villena, Fulgencio Cerdán, said the thieves “stole a large part of the treasure,” particularly all the gold, El Pais reported.
The museum’s assortment, which dates back to around 1,000 BC, is primarily gold gadgets, but there are also items of silver, iron and amber.
It consists of more than 60 bronze age objects, including 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles and other miscellaneous items.
The city is “devastated,” Cerdán said. “They’ve taken most of the treasure.”
“I’m even trembling. The truth is that for those of us from Villena, this destroys us. It’s part of our heritage, of our wealth,” the mayor said.
The assortment was found in 1963 by archaeologist Jose María Soler in a vessel sunk in a dried-out riverbed in Villena.
The Villena council spokesman insisted there had been “no failure” by the museum.
“All security systems were activated.”
The previous yr has seen a collection of raids on European museums. In October 2025, thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris in broad daylight, stealing jewelry value $102m (£75m) before escaping on scooters, in a heist that took about eight minutes.
Last week, 4 works “of extraordinary value” by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy’s tradition ministry said.
Earlier this month, Italian police said they had recovered work by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse value over $10.4m (£7.6m) which were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum close to Parma.
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