Radio România Internațional

Tag: artefacts

  • UPDATE

    UPDATE

    THEFT The Romanian Prime Minister’s Investigation Team has discovered a series of irregularities in the process of staging the exhibition at the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands, from where several ancient artefacts loaned out by Romania’s History Museum were stolen a couple of weeks ago. A report, submitted to the Prosecutor’s General Office, says that Romania’s National History Museum and the Ministry of Culture accepted less rigorous security measures than in the case of the similar exhibitions in Madrid and Rome, such as the lack of permanent guards. Another major slip was the fact that the exhibition didn’t get the approval of the Museum’s Board of Directors, as the law requires, and the loan contract had not been done in probated form. Furthermore, the insurance value for some artefacts was based on a 14-year old reassessment.

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  • February 7, 2025

    February 7, 2025

    GDP Romania has overcome Poland in terms of the GDP per capita against purchasing power says a survey conducted by experts with the Romanian Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. According to the same sources, Romania is also ahead other economies in the region, such as Hungary, Croatia or Greece and the nominal GDP per capita has risen by 11% in the past five years, exceeding 80% of the EU average. We’ll be having more on this after the news

    WAGES According to the latest economic forecasts of the European Commission in Romania wages will moderately increase in 2025 and 2026. The European Commission has based its forecasts on the already significant increases in the minimum wages already made by the government in Bucharest, the lower inflation and the labour market relaxation, which is expected to reduce the unemployment rate. European Commission experts are expecting price hikes in energy and food to significantly decrease. The inflation rate is expected to drop down to the Central Bank’s target of 2.5% towards the end of 2026.

    THEFT The Dutch police have announced they have received hundreds of hints regarding the theft of the precious Romanian artefacts from the Drents Museum in Assen. Many of these are about the places where the suspects have been seen and their contacts. The police last week apprehended three suspects, two men and a woman who refused to say where the stolen objects are stashed. All the three suspects are still in police custody. Art detective, Arthur Brand says there is 50% risk the suspects have already melted the golden artefacts: an ancient helmet and three bracelets dating back to the old kingdom of Dacia, 25 hundred years ago, which had been loaned out by the National History Museum in Bucharest.

    VISIT The head of the US diplomacy, Marco Rubio, will be travelling to Israel and several Arab countries in mid-February, the US Department of State has announced. This would be Rubio’s first trip as a Secretary of State to the region after the US President, Donald Trump’s statement on resettling the Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip under US monitoring. Trump’s resettlement idea has prompted a series of accusations that he is planning ethnic cleansing and has drawn condemnation from the UN, human rights groups and Arab leaders. Rubio insists that Donald Trump proposed the reconstruction of the aforementioned territory, which at present offers improper dwelling conditions. According to AFP, Rubio will be participating in the Security Conference in Munich and is going on a Middle East tour, which will take him to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia over February 13 and 18.

    IMF Romania’s Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, is meeting an IMF team, whose four days trip to Bucharest ends today. The IMF experts are having talks with Central Bank officials, including governor Isarescu. The IMF delegation hasn’t called for strict financial measures, like tax hikes or other austerity measures, Finance Minister Tanczos Barna says. Barna met the new head of the IMF mission to Romania, Joong Shik Kang on Thursday. At present Romania doesn’t have an IMF funding agreement underway, but the institution is presently monitoring Romania’s economy, under Article Four, which provides for a mandatory monitoring exercise involving all member states. The consultations’ main purpose was financial and economic assessment at national level as well as recommendations concerning monetary, financial and economic policies with a view to achieving economic stability and development.

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  • January 28, 2025

    January 28, 2025

    SEARCH The Dutch police are still looking for those who on Saturday morning blasted their way into the Drents Museum in Assen and left with four ancient artefacts belonging to Romania. In a communiqué, the Culture Minister in Bucharest, Natalia Intotero, has referred to the talks she had with King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and the Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, about the theft. The minister says these aren’t simple artefacts, but essential parts of the history and identity of the Romanian people also representing a priceless cultural heritage, not only for Romania, but for the entire world and that there is a moral duty to protect and recover these symbols. Intotero has called on the Dutch authorities to attach the proper attention to the issue and take all the necessary moves to identify the thieves and bring the aforementioned treasure artefacts to Romania, where they actually belong.

     

    ELECTION In its session today, the government in Bucharest has endorsed the calendar of the upcoming presidential election. Under the document, the first round of election is due on May 4 and the second on 18. Candidacies are to be submitted to the Central Election Office until March 15 and the election campaign is due to get underway on April 4 and close on May 3, at 7 hours, local time. Romanians living abroad will also have three days to cast their ballot just like last year when the first round was cancelled under a Constitutional Court ruling.

     

    TALKS Romania’s Foreign Minister, Emil Hurezeanu, is today having talks with NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. Rutte has recently cautioned that in 4-5 years, the allies will not be able to ensure their collective defence unless they manage to raise the defence expenses. The US president, Donald Trump, whose country covers the biggest part of NATO expenses, has recently called on the allies to raise their national defence budgets to 5% of the GDP. Minister Hurezeanu attended the EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, which had high on the agenda, the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East and the relations with the USA.

     

    TOURISM Bucharest has this week presented the fourth edition of the White Charter of Tourism, comprising the industry’s main characteristics, risks, vulnerabilities as well as the opportunities it has at national level. According to the survey more and more tourists are choosing Romanian travel destinations. The main investment domains in the aforementioned industry should remain entertainment and infrastructure and the promotion should be stepped up both at national and international levels. The field ministry believes that by 2035, Romania’s travel industry should have made 3 billion Euros in proceeds, including through the attraction of a larger number of foreign tourists and by doubling down on the existing demand.

     

    TENNIS Romania’s tennis player Sorana Cirstea on Monday qualified for the round of sixteen of the WTA 500 tournament in Linz, Austria, a competition with roughly one million dollars in prize money. The Romanian has outperformed the Dutch challenger Arantxa Rus, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. Cirstea hasn’t won a game in the professional circuit since May last year. Another Romanian attending the Linz competition, Anca Todoni, has been defeated in the first round of the qualifying contest.

     

    WEATHER And now a couple of things about the weather, which is extremely warm for this time of the year with highs ranging from 9 to 18 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 12 degrees.

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  • January 26, Newsflash Update

    January 26, Newsflash Update

    REACTION Romania’s Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, on Sunday announced the setting up at the government level of a crisis cell for the effective coordination of the activities of recovering the four Romanian ancient artefacts stolen from the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands. The aforementioned cell includes representatives of the Romanian police as well as from the Foreign, Interior and Culture Ministries. The Prime Minister says he held talks with Interior Minister, Catalin Predoiu, on the urgent dispatching of a forensic team, who will work together with the Dutch authorities on the case. The General Prosecutor’s Office says that a criminal file has been made ex officio on the burglary in Assen. All the stolen artefacts have been insured under the Romanian and international legislation according to exhibition staging procedures. In a news conference at the National History Museum in Bucharest, director Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu says the artefacts stolen from the Dutch museum are being covered by a-35 million Euros insurance with a Dutch insurance company.

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  • January 26, 2025

    January 26, 2025

    BUDGET Romania’s 2025 draft budget will be presented to the government and submitted to Parliament for approval in the following days. The Executive intends to submit it for voting by senators and deputies right in the first week of the future Legislature, which gets underway on February 3. The present budget construction targets a 7% GDP deficit as compared to 8.6% last year and in order to achieve that goal, the government has already decided to freeze any pay rise and indexation for state budget employees as well as any pension indexation aimed at adjusting to the inflation rate. Central public institutions and state companies are also to be reorganized and streamlined. The aforementioned austerity measures have caused discontent and a series of protests.

     

    PNL Liberals have today validated the former PNL president Crin Antonescu, as the ruling coalition’s joint candidate for the presidential election slated for May. Antonescu must also get validation from the ruling partners – PSD and UDMR, which is to be followed by a joint event aimed at launching Antonescu in the presidential race. The first and the second rounds of the presidential election have been slated for May 4 and 18, after the Constitutional Court’s cancellation of a first round in December. The Court based its ruling on a report issued by the country’s Higher Defence Council, which referred to foreign interference in the election process. The aforementioned allegations have not been confirmed by legal investigators yet. Tens of thousands Romanians have taken to the streets calling for the resumption of the December election, whose cancellation they believe was unjustified.

     

    HEIST The Dutch police have published the first images with the initial moments of the burglary at the Drents Museum in Assen, from where thieves stole priceless Romanian jewelry in the early hours of Saturday morning. The footage shows that the thieves used explosive to blast their way into the museum. Investigators, who have called on the Interpol to help with the investigation, have announced the discovery of a suspect burnt vehicle, which could be related to the robbery. The thieves have left with three Dacian spiral bracelets and the exhibition’s central piece – the decorated Helmet of Coţofeneşti, which are dating back almost 25 hundred years ago. All these artefacts belonged to Romania’s National History Museum, being the most valuable in an exhibition entitled ”Dacia! The Kingdom of Gold and Silver” opened at the Drents Museum in July last year, and which was supposed to have its last day today. During a phone call with president Klaus Iohannis, the Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, has given assurances that the police are doing everything possible to identify the thieves and recuperate the treasure.

     

    REACTION The General Prosecutor’s Office in Bucharest has announced the opening of a criminal file in the case of the Assen heist. The investigation is being carried out by prosecutors with the Higher Court Prosecutor’s Office and Romanian police experts. The ancient artefacts stolen from Drents must be quickly recovered and safely returned to Romania – Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu says. The chair of the Culture Committee with the Chamber of Deputies, Mihail Neamtu, has also called for an ample investigation into the way in which the Dacian treasure was exposed and jeopardized. The stolen artefacts are an incommensurable loss for Romania and the Romanian authorities jointly with their Dutch counterparts have the obligation to make all possible efforts to recover and bring them to Romania right away, says the opposition USR.

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