Basel Police Seize Nebra Sky Disc in Undercover Operation

In February 2002, Saxon-Anhalt state archaeologist Harald Meller first held the Nebra Sky Disc, a 3,600-year-old bronze artifact, after it was presented to him under dubious circumstances in Basel, Switzerland. The disc had been discovered by chance in the southern Harz region in 2002, but before it could be displayed in a museum, it underwent an odyssey that led to Switzerland. Meller had learned of the find in May 2001 from his Berlin colleague Wilfried Menghin, who showed him photographs of the greenish patinated disc along with earth-encrusted swords, axes, arm rings, and a chisel. The images of the 32-centimeter disc were astonishing to any seasoned archaeologist. The article, published in the German newspaper Der Freitag, recounts the dramatic undercover operation that led to the recovery of the disc, which is considered one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century. The Nebra Sky Disc is now part of the permanent exhibition at the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle, Germany.