Police in Oslo have arrested and charged a man in connection with the unusual theft earlier this week of an historic ski jacket worn by King Haakon VII. The jacket had been on exhibit at the Ski Museum at Holmenkollen for several years.
Karin Berg, director of the museum located under the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, discovered the theft Thursday when she was preparing a speech tied to her new book about the jacket and its royal embroidery. Both she and the jacket had been featured prominently in several local newspapers just days before.
“This is unreal,” Berg told newspaper Aftenposten on Friday. She said the jacket was stolen in broad daylight while at least 60 visitors were inside the museum. Its locked display case had been pried open, probably in a matter of minutes.
On Friday afternoon, website dagbladet.no (external link) could report that police had a suspect in custody who was undergoing questioning. Police earlier had said they had received many tips in the case.
Berg considers the jacket, made from reindeer fur, a national treasure, containing embroidery that was illegally sewn by a prisoner of war and friend of the king’s late wife at the Grini prison camp outside during World War II.
Its theft is the first ever suffered by the museum, which recently reopened following the ski jump’s expansion for the World Championships that begin later this month.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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