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span class="inline inline-center">Slack: A security official patrols the National Museum building in Jakarta on Monday. Several pieces of historic gold artifacts were stolen from the poorly-guarded museum recently. The stolen items were believed to be in Singapore and they could be moved to Europe, the experts said. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama

As the police fumble in their response to the burglary at the National Museum, the four gold artifacts stolen last week may be in Singapore on a stopover before heading to Europe by the end of this month.

The Cultural Heritage Advocacy Society, a museum watch organization, said that its sources had confirmed that Europe would be the final destination for the stolen artifacts.

'€œEurope could be the destination for these thieves to sell the artifacts,'€ the society'€™s coordinator, Johannes Marbun, said on Monday.

Johannes, who previously helped track down thieves in the Sonobudoyo Museum burglary, said that burglaries at Indonesian museums, including the National Museum theft, were managed and executed by professionals.

'€œTo steal precious collections in a museum, a team usually consists of a mastermind, executors and helpers, and this often involves museum employees,'€ he said.

On Wednesday last week, thieves made off with four ancient, gold Mataram-era artifacts: a dragon-shaped plaque, a scripted crescent-shaped plaque, a Harihara plaque and a small, round, gold box.

A source, who is familiar with the illegal trading of Indonesian antiquities, said that European collectors would go '€œthe extra mile'€ to get their hands on Indonesian collections.

'€œThese collectors have usually visited the museums and taken pictures of the items they want. They then place an order for the items with a team that designs the burglary strategy and sends the items to the collectors, who pay them a great deal of money,'€ the source told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The source said that the stolen items from the National Museum, which could be deemed masterpieces, could fetch up to Rp 2 billion (US$176,000) per item.

He added that the stolen items may already be outside Indonesia.

'€œThe standard operating procedures for thieves of antiquities require that each burglary team has to smuggle the stolen items outside Indonesia, places like Singapore, within a day of the theft taking place,'€ he said.

Singapore has become a favorite transit destination for illegal traders before the highly valuable antiquities are smuggled to European countries.

'€œAgents in Singapore will connect the illegal traders of Indonesian antiquities to European collectors who want to buy Southeast Asian archaeological pieces,'€ he said.

Sjahrial Djalil, a private collector and founder of the Di Tengah Kebun Museum in South Jakarta, said that international auction houses, such as Christie'€™s London, often classified Indonesian antiquities as special edition items.

'€œIt'€™s quite hard to find Indonesian antiquities at international auction houses. So, when these houses sell Indonesian antiquities, the prices for these items soar,'€ he said.

Sjahrial said that collectors usually bought items by either ordering them directly from agents or from auction houses. He added, however, that some collectors, including himself, would prefer to buy collections from auction houses like Christie'€™s, due to the guarantee of provenance.

'€œI have been duped many times by these agents. I don'€™t want to buy antiquities from them anymore,'€ he said.

Contacted separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police were still investigating the case.

'€œWe haven'€™t got any reliable source of information to confirm the stolen artifacts have reached Singapore. Let'€™s just wait,'€ he said. (tam)