Let's recap the #GreenVault robbery in Dresden. What we know (and don't know) thus far.

The Green Vault, or Grünes Gewölbe in German, in Dresden is a unique historic museum that contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe. It was founded by Augustus the Strong in 1723. Today its treasures are shown in two exhibition, the historic and new green vaults.

At around 5am this morning, two burglars managed to gain access into the Historic Green Vault, which is part of the Residenzschloss in Dresden. They entered the museum by removing part of an iron grille on a ground-floor window and then smashed the glass.

It remains unclear if there was a technical alarm signal. In any case, the security guards present saw the burglars on a surveillance video and called the police. As the security guards were unarmed (as normal in German museums), they did not try to catch the burglars.

The police arrived after only a few minutes but the burglars are still on the run. There was a power outage in the area caused by a public circuit breaker panel on fire. Some suspect that the two incidents may be related.

So what did the burglars steal? Three sets of jewellery owned by Augustus the Strong. Judging by a press conference earlier today, it must be the contents of this show-case.

The three sets of jewellery were considered to be the most valuable out of the ten sets remaining. The diamond set, brilliant set and rose cut set consist of up to 100 individual pieces. They also feature sapphires, rubies and emeralds.

It is not actually clear yet, how much of the jewellery was stolen. There is a quote from the head of the museum from earlier this evening saying that more remains than initially expected.

The museum's experts weren't able to properly assess the situation during the earlier hours of the day as the police first had to try to preserve as much evidence as possible.

The jewels are usually described as "priceless" with their actual worth, of course, less than their historic importance. What was so special about these sets was that there were almost complete. They consists of buttons, orders, buckles, hat adornments, epaulettes, canes & more.

The police just published a video sequence captured by the surveillance cameras showing the burglary. You can see how the burglars destroy the glass show-cases with an axe.

The police has also released pictures of several of the stolen items.

More of the stolen items in today's Green Vault robbery.

Another two missing pieces.

Some details: This piece of jewellery was made for Augustus the Strong in 1746 by Jean Jacques Pallard. It consists of 83 brilliant-cut diamonds set in gold, silver, brass and steel.

An epaulette of Augustus the Strong made out of 20 big and 216 smaller rose-cut diamonds set in silver and gold.

The Queen's Pearls - a pearl necklace consisting of 177 Saxon pearls.

A sword set with no less than 770 rose-cut diamonds.

The star of the Order of the White Eagle. The order was officially instituted on November 1, 1705, by Augustus the Strong, who was both King of Poland and Elector of Saxony.

All pictures by Grünes Gewölbe/Polizeidirektion Dresden.

While many people are hoping against all hope that the pieces will be retrieved, it is far more likely that they were (or soon will be) dismantled and the stones recut, so they can be sold again without anyone knowing their origin.

All of this seems especially tragic in the light of the Green Vault's history. Opened to the public in 1724, it's considered one of the world's oldest museums. It remained virtually unchanged until the early 20th century.

During the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, considered one of the worst in WWII history, several of the rooms were destroyed. Luckily the artifacts had already been hidden away by that point.

After the end of WWII, the Soviets confiscated the jewels and brought them to Russia. They were returned to the GDR in 1958. Only in 2006, 59 years after the end of WWII, the Historic Green Vault was reopened after reconstruction was finally complete and the jewels returned.