(MENAFN) A Chinese citizen has been formally accused in connection with a €1.5 million gold theft that occurred last month at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, according to a media outlet, which cited information from the public prosecutor’s office.

The theft came to light on the morning of September 16, when museum employees noticed that nearly 6 kilograms of gold had vanished. The missing items had been part of a long-standing public exhibition.

Authorities stated that the stolen artifacts included Bolivian nuggets originally presented to the Academy of Sciences during the 18th century, items from Russia’s Ural Mountains donated by "Tsar Nicholas I" in 1833, and gold from California linked to the historic gold rush.

A particularly notable piece among the collection was a single nugget weighing over 5 kilograms, which had been unearthed in Australia in 1990.

Investigators discovered evidence of break-in attempts at two separate entryways, both of which had been cut open with an angle grinder, creating holes just slightly bigger than a standard A4 paper.

Surveillance videos captured a petite woman dressed in all black squeezing through one of the openings shortly after 1 a.m.

The intruder reportedly used a blowtorch to destroy a display case holding the valuable nuggets before departing the museum at approximately 4 a.m.

Authorities described her outfit as including a wide-brimmed hat with a veil similar to a beekeeper’s net, giving her the appearance of a "circus artist." Various tools left behind included a screwdriver, saws, and canisters of gas.

Through analysis of phone data, law enforcement traced the suspect's movements and found that she had left France for China on the same day as the heist. She was subsequently apprehended at the airport in Barcelona, where officials confiscated close to 1 kilogram of gold that had been melted down.

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