The Australian Museum diamond heist and the thieves who couldn’t spot a fake

ON a March evening in 1968, a group of misguided thieves hid in the Australian Museum, smashed a display case and fled with 17 incredible ‘diamonds’.

The Australian Museum, pictured in 1870. Courtesy Australian Museum

ON the night of March 30, 1968, a group of misguided thieves hid in the Australian Museum, smashed a display case and fled with 17 incredible ‘diamonds’.

Unfortunately they didn’t read the label.

The diamonds were in fact glass replicas of some of the world’s largest and most famous sparklers — including high-quality copies of the Koh-I-Noor, once the world’s largest known diamond and part of the British Crown Jewels, and the Orloff diamond given to Catherine the Great.

Three months later, they were returned from Canada in a brown paper parcel with a note, saying; “Sorry gentleman (sic), they are not real.”

Replica diamonds stolen from the Australian Museum in 1968. Photographer: Stuart Humphreys. Right, the real Koh-i-Noor diamond in the British Crown.

The museum was well aware. It had bought them for around £3 almost 70 years earlier, and for years they had formed one of its most popular displays in the Mineral Gallery.

The ‘diamonds’ are among 18 million artefacts and specimens in the collection of Australia’s oldest museum, which turned 190 this week. Worth an estimated $484 million, only one per cent of the collection is on display. Many of the specimens and artefacts are irreplaceable.

The Old Entrance Hall (Barnet Wing) of the Australian Museum, erected in 1887. Photo Henry Barnes

A sunfish is prepared to be hoisted into the Australian Museum in Sydney in 1901. It was a source of wonder and amazement for many years, and remains in the collection.

The museum has come a long way since its rocky beginnings in 1827, when it was established with a budget of £200 a year. Shuffling between sheds and buildings waiting for a permanent home (which it got in 1857), it’s first ill-fated custodian William Holmes shot and killed himself while collecting birds at Moreton Bay in 1831.

Almost 50 years later, 2000 objects on display at the Sydney International Exhibition were destroyed in the Garden Palace fire in 1882 and it took E.P Ramsay, the first Australian to head the museum, more than two decades to rebuild the collection, some of which had been collected at great risk to staff.

Behind the scenes of Australia Museum

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Today, the collection has grown to include all sorts of curious things. There’s a cape presented to Captain James Cook in 1778 by King Kalani’opu’u of Hawai’i, the largest piece of the first meteorite, Barratta, found in Australia in 1845, there’s even an Egyptian mummy. The museum houses the best crystal collection in the world, ranging from specimens collected by Sir Douglas Mawson in Antarctica to a piece of fluorite used as kryptonite in Superman Returns. It’s also the trusted guardian of rare and precious items that tell the history of indigenous Australians and peoples of the Pacific, as well as a vast archive of flora and fauna specimens, many now extinct.

A T-Rex skeleton at the Australian Museum, located in Sydney. The museum is celebrating 190 years of operation.

A diprotodon from the Australian Museum. Picture: James King

The Bayala Nura gallery at the Australian Museum, located in Sydney.

And behind the scenes, it’s serious business. More than 100 scientists and researchers are at work tackling some of the biggest challenges facing Australia: climate change, species conservation, biodiversity, not to mention biosecurity (pest animals cost Australia $720 million per year).

The head of the museum’s research institute, forensic scientist Dr. Rebecca Johnson, is also leading a consortium of scientist to map the koala genome for the first time, a critical step in ensuring the long-term survival of one of Australia’s most iconic species.

Dr Rebecca Johnson is leading the koala genome project, which promises a new understanding of koala biology that will transform how koalas are managed, and provide new ways to diagnose and treat the diseases affecting Australia’s koala. Picture: Australian Museum

The museum collection includes 18 million specimens and artefacts, including the humble bluebottle. The collections provide a reference to the fauna, geology and cultural heritage of Australia and the region.

The museum also houses a huge DNA lab which has successfully identified ‘problem’ birds to prevent bird strike, a deadly issue in aviation, and is helping fight the illegal trade in wildlife, by developing a fast acting kit to identify Rhino horn, now used by Border Security.

HERE’S TO ANOTHER 190 YEARS!

To find out more, visit the Australian Museum and be sure to share your favourite memory of the museum with the #AMMuseum on their Facebook page.