3 men convicted in the theft of ancient Celtic gold coins from a German museum

BERLIN AP Three men were convicted Tuesday in the theft of hundreds of ancient gold coins from a German museum in and handed prison sentences ranging up to years A court in the southern city of Ingolstadt convicted the defendants of gang robbery over the museum heist German news agency dpa released A fourth defendant was acquitted of involvement in the museum heist but convicted for other thefts carried out by the group The individuals from northern Germany were arrested months after a Nov break-in at the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching in which Celtic coins discovered during an archaeological dig were stolen The coins dated to around B C The coins and a lump of unworked gold were originally discovered during excavations of an ancient settlement in Manching and agents have reported they are considered the biggest trove of Celtic gold identified in the th century Preponderance of the stolen treasure is still missing but investigators uncovered lumps of gold on one of the subjects when he was arrested that appear to have resulted from part of the treasure being melted down Investigators have noted that cables were cut at a telecommunications hub knocking out local networks before the heist and that the thieves got in and out of the museum in nine minutes during the night without triggering an alarm The four defendants were accused of a total of break-ins or attempted robberies in Germany and neighboring Austria starting in Other cases involved safes or cash machines being broken into The defendants didn t address the charges during the roughly six-month trial but their lawyers called for their acquittal The court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four years and nine months to years