In the case of the spectacular theft of jewels from the Green Vault in Dresden, the police ended a search operation in a Berlin sewer after two days on Tuesday.

On the first and second day of Christmas, around 20 police divers from Berlin, Saxony and the federal police in the Neukölln shipping channel searched for "evidence", as the Dresden police department announced.

About 150 meters of the canal should be searched.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The police did not provide any information about the background to the search operation even after it ended.

With a view to the main negotiations against the alleged thieves, no details could be given as to "what was being searched for and whether anything was found," said a police spokesman on Tuesday.

Around three years after the burglary in the treasury, large parts of the loot turned up again a week before Christmas.

31 items from the theft were secured by the Saxon police in Berlin and were brought to Dresden under the guard of special forces, where they were to be examined first by forensic technology and then by experts from the State Art Collections.

The returned treasures include a hat decoration (heron tail) and a breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle from a set of diamonds.

Hidden in the canal?

Individual parts of the returned jewelry are said to have water damage.

The perpetrators could have packed the loot or parts of it and hidden them in the canal.

However, important parts of the booty are still missing, such as the epaulette with the “Saxon White” and the large breast bow of Queen Amalie Auguste.

The pieces of jewelery from the 18th century with a total of 4300 diamonds and brilliants have an insurance value of almost 114 million euros and are of immense cultural and historical importance.

The loot was returned because one of the six suspects who are currently on trial for the theft in Dresden is trying to negotiate a deal with the public prosecutor's office through a defense attorney and is possibly hoping for a penalty discount.

A deal is possible when a defendant makes a confession or partial confession.

The judiciary in Dresden announced that "the defense and the public prosecutor's office, with the involvement of the court, discussed a possible agreement on the procedure and the return of looted items that were still available".

Trial is scheduled to continue in January

Six men from Berlin, aged between 22 and 28, are accused of gang theft and serious arson.

They all have German citizenship and belong to the so-called Remmo clan, which is known for its brazen thefts and belongs to an extended family of Arabic origin.

One of the accused had already admitted in court that he was involved in preparing the burglary.

A defendant was recently convicted of stealing special tools from a company in Erlangen and was also involved in the theft of the 100-kilogram gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum in 2017.

The jewels were stolen in the early morning of November 25, 2019 from the Green Vault in Dresden, the historical museum collection of the former treasury of the Wettin princes;

it was one of the most spectacular art thefts in Germany.

The trial of the accused is expected to resume on January 10th.