( Newsvine )) Forget the horns of a dilemma. For Danish officials, it's a dilemma of the horns.
The prized replacement copies of a lost Danish treasure - a pair of golden horns that were stolen in 1802 and melted down in an audacious crime - have also been snatched, officials said.
Burglars struck early Monday at a museum in the former Viking capital of Jelling, stealing the golden replicas of two original horns that were believed to date back to the year 400.
The originals were found in 1639 and 1734, but historians were not been able to determine what they were used for. The horns weighed more than 6 pounds and were stolen in 1802 by an indebted goldsmith who melted them into fake coins and jewelry before he was caught.
The replicas, normally kept at the National Museum in Copenhagen, were made in 1979 after studies of old police reports from 1802.
Officials were not able to put a value on the replicas.
"It's sad, but it's not a national catastrophe. The catastrophe was in 1802," said Michael Andersen, curator at the Royal Jelling museum where the horns were being exhibited.
The horns were stolen in the hours before the museum opened in Jelling on the Jutland peninsula, 125 miles west of Copenhagen. Police said they have no suspects.