Burglary in a Swedish Ancient Art and Coin Shop

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by Marius Ringsrud

May 2, 2013 – When coin and ancient art dealer Mr. Gunnar Bengtsson arrived at his shop Skarabé in central Gothenburg on Wednesday 30 January 2013, he observed that something was missing from his large safe. When opening the safe he realised that many gold and silver commemorative coins were missing. He also saw two 20 cm-wide holes in the back of the safe. During the night these two holes had been drilled through the thick stone walls from the staircase and into his shop.

The calculated value of the lost coins was about 100,000 Swedish kronor (ca. US$ 15,500). Taking the situation into consideration, Mr. Bengtsson was glad that the two individual holes had only given the burglars access to one shelf, which contained gold and silver bullion coins from the 1980s to the 1990s, and the thieves had not gained access to all the shelves in the safe. Mr. Bengtsson agrees with the local newspaper journalist Mr. Kalle Berg when he says it is something like a Jönssonligan story. The Jönssonligan is a classical 1980s comedy TV-filmseries from Sweden which includes very creative criminals. Let us hope that this story ends like most of the films, because the Jönssonligan’s members were rarely successful thieves.

Mr. Bengtsson’s ancient coins are thus still available for coin collectors. This is good news, because Skarabé is an important source of ancient art and culture in Gothenburg, since the city does not have any national museums which display ancient art or coins. Mr. Begtsson’s shop is situated in the 1996-established antique stores shopping centre called “Antikhallarna”.

You can visit the websit of Skarabé here.