3D printed replicas of stolen Romanian gold helmet a hit at Carnival
While the police are still looking for the stolen helmet of Coțofenești, a costume shop in Beverwijk is selling 3D-printed replicas of the Romanian artifact for Carnival. “It has exploded a bit here,” Astrid de Jong of party shop Greet Verkleedt told RTL Nieuws.
The real helmet of Coțofenești was stolen from the Drents Museum in Assen along with several other Romanian artifacts in January. It is made of gold and worth millions of euros. The ones sold in De Jong’s shop are 3D printed from plastic and cost significantly less.
The idea of replicating the stolen helmet came to De Jong a few weeks ago. “My husband and I were thinking about an original idea for Carnival. We initially planned to have the helmet made of cardboard but that was actually too late for Carnival to start producing things.” She gave up on the idea, until a man entered the shop last week with a replica he had made on his 3D printer.
“He had the helmet under his arm and asked if I was interested in renting or selling it. Then I thought: that would be a great idea to offer, just before Carnival, and we started talking.”
Orders quickly started flowing in. But anyone who still wants to grab one for carnival best act quickly. “It's made to order and it takes 16 hours to print one,” Astrid said. “We now have about 12 of them and they have all been sold. A few more are coming, and if they are sold, we may be able to order a few more, but I also still have a shop to run, so I am quite busy,” De Jonge said.
