Bronze Age Gold Artefacts Stolen from St Fagans National Museum of History

Several Bronze Age gold artefacts have been stolen from St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, one of Wales’s principal repositories of archaeological material. The burglary occurred in the early hours of 6 October, when intruders forced entry into the museum’s main building and removed objects from a "secure display case".

The stolen assemblage is reported to include gold bracelets and a lunula. Such artefacts are of major archaeological significance, representing some of the earliest examples of metalworking in Atlantic Europe and offering key insights into prehistoric craftsmanship and long-distance exchange networks.

Two men from Northampton have been charged in connection with the theft, police named them as Gavin Burnett (43), and Darren Burnett (50), while a 45-year-old woman from Northamptonshire has been arrested as part of the investigation and is on police bail. The men appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court today. The stolen objects have not yet been recovered.

The loss of these artefacts constitutes a serious blow to the preservation of Wales’s Bronze Age heritage and underscores the vulnerability of archaeological collections held in public trust in Britain.