You could steal much easier and less risky from lesser known places. If you wanted to steal gold and gems to melt down and reassemble why create so much public and international attention?
My bet is on a private purchaser that specifically wanted these items for his collection.
For normally stolen pieces, melted down and the gems refit.
This? Probably sitting in some 1%'ers private collection so they can play dress-up.
You could steal much easier and less risky from lesser known places. If you wanted to steal gold and gems to melt down and reassemble why create so much public and international attention?
My bet is on a private purchaser that specifically wanted these items for his collection.
There was another heist earlier this year where some gold artifacts were stolen and then sold to jewelery makers who melted them down.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-3000-year-old-bracelet-belonging-to-an-ancient-egyptian-pharaoh-has-been-stolen-sold-and-melted-down-for-gold-180987374/
Either that, or it also goes through a chop shop and they’ll sell the individual materials for much less than it would be worth
Likely though, I imagine this was a custom order job for some 0.1% asshole