French police arrested the night of December 27-28 in Nemours , near Paris, ac inco Spanish citizens and one Chinese who allegedly planned to steal in the "Chinese Museum" of the Palace of Fontainebleau , which houses the Napoleon Asian art collection III, today confirmed to EL MUNDO judicial sources.

The detainees have been in preventive detention since December 31 accused of "illicit association for the preparation of a crime and robbery in an organized gang," at the request of the Paris Prosecutor's Office, according to the same sources.

The investigation, carried out by the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC), began as a result of information sent to the French police by their counterparts in Madrid, according to sources close to the investigation cited by the French press.

Placed on the track, the French police established surveillance around the Palace of Fontainebleau, which allowed the arrest of the alleged thieves. They were caught in the parking lot of a hotel before they entered to steal. Police discovered levers, balaclavas, gloves and spikes in the trunk of their cars, local newspaper Le Parisien revealed. The alleged thieves deny the charges and say they are simple tourists, according to this Parisian newspaper.

The Fontainebleau Palace, located in the heart of a large forest 60 kilometers southeast of Paris, has more than eight centuries of history. It was originally a hunting lodge used by the French monarchs since the twelfth century. In the 16th century, King Francis I extended it, because he intended to make it a "new Rome". Within its walls have slept members of the dynasty of the Capetos, the Valois, the Bourbons, the Bonaparte and the house of Orleans.

The Palace, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site , houses four museums, including the "Chinese Museum", which was targeted by thieves. This museum contains the collection of 300 pieces from the Far East gathered by Napoleon III and his wife Eugenia de Montijo from 1863. These works came from the Imperial Storage, from acquisitions of the emperor and empress, from embargoes of the times of the Revolution and of the sacking of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing by the French and British during the Second Opium War.

In 2015 the Chinese museum of the Palace of Fontainebleau was already the scene of a millionaire robbery. The booty contained 22 works of art, including a golden crown replica of the king of Siam, gift to Napoleon III during an official visit in 1861; a Tibetan mandala and several 18th-century porcelains.

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