The police were alerted via an anonymous tip-off, Kari Trones, police representative in the West district, told Norwegian newspaper VG.no. According to the spokesperson, the gates were found in a sparsely inhabited area near a shooting range. The gate is in good condition despite some rust. It remains unknown whether the gate had been lying there for a long time.
"[The gate] lay under a tarpaulin with some junk in a car park near a country road. It is a mystery how it was stolen and came to be hidden in Norway. We have no suspects in this case, but it will be investigated by the police in Bergen, " Trones said.
The gate, weighing up to 100 kilograms, has been missing since 2014. The director of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Gabriele Hammermann described it as a "deliberate, reprehensible attempt to deny and obliterate the memory of the crimes."
After the theft, the center hired a locksmith to create a replica based on historical photos from 1936 and more recent pictures from tourists.
