More than 600 high-value artefacts were stolen from a building in the English city of Bristol where items from a museum collection were being stored, police said on Thursday.

Avon and Somerset Police said that in the early hours of September 25 four men allegedly broke into a building housing items from Bristol Museum’s collection on the British Empire and Commonwealth. The burglary had not previously been publicised.

The police are now appealing for help to identify the men from CCTV footage which showed them walking along a street.

“The theft of many items which carry a significant cultural value is a significant loss for the city,” said Dan Burgan, an officer investigating the case.

The theft follows a robbery at Paris’s Louvre museum in October, which exposed major security lapses at the world’s most visited museum.