CHURCH RICHES STOLEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7019, 6 January 1910, Page 9

CHURCH RICHES STOLEN

Xu a celebrated church at Czcnstocliou, near the Austro-Polish frontier, to which many pilgrimages are made, a daring jewel robbery ™ discovered (says the Vienna correspondent of tho “Daily telegraph")- XVhen tho priest opened the doors on a Sunday morning, and entered tho chapel, lie noticed (that an /imago of tho Virgin had boon robbed of its jewels and that a silver cnrrtain in front or the image, which had been an object of veneration for the Poles throughout -whole cemtiirics, was torn down find thrown on two : alter candelabra. Tho damaged pearl robe of the Virgin is worth .£300,000, and a diamond crown, dedicated to the Infant Jeeus (which formed part of the inAige of the Virgin) by ’.Pape Clement XI. an the year 1719, and vVorth £120.000, was also stolen. The pearl robe is believed to be a present from tho Polish Queen Hedwig, the wife of King Ladislana. Tiro other sacred robes, one of rubies, which was worth £400,000, the costliest object in tho church, remained in the treasury untouched. Alore than fifty diamond rings, worth several million kronen, were carried off by the robbers, without reckoning the historic value of the damage done to the church, which amounts to about £600,000. The church treasury, containing many even more costly .objects, was left untonched. On the theft becoming known thousands of pilgrims wept and screamed.