Biggest Theft of Jewels in France: Jewelry Taken in Cannes Robbery Valued at $136 Million

The prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Grasse has estimated the value of the diamond jewels stolen from a luxury hotel in Cannes to $136 million.
The figure was issued on Monday based on an
inventory of pieces stolen in broad daylight from a precious jewellery exhibition at the luxury Carlton Hotel.
This past weekend's heist had previously been estimated at $53 million but now raised to $136 million.
The theft of 34 pieces was carried out by a lone gunman Sunday at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel on the French Riviera.
The thief burst into the Carlton, on the famed La Croisette seafront, close to midday on Sunday armed with an automatic pistol and with a cap and a scarf concealing his face.
He threatened security guards and sales staff and left moments later with a briefcase containing 72 pieces, including jewels, rings, pendants and diamond-encrusted earrings, from a collection belonging to diamond specialist Leviev.
Just 34 of the stolen items were worth a total of $135 million, according to the prosecutor’s office, which initially valued the loot at “several million euros”.
The gems taken from the Cannes luxury hotel were part of an exhibition of works from the Leviev diamond house, owned by Russian-born Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.
The theft surpasses the previous French record of about $106 million in a 2008 holdup in Paris, Philippe Vique, the deputy prosecutor of the nearby town Grasse said.
It was the biggest theft of jewels on record in France.
The heist came two months after two smaller jewellery robberies hit the annual Cannes film festival, where movie stars are lent gowns and gems to parade on the red carpets.

A group of men disguised as women shoppers pulled out guns and made off with around $105 million worth of jewels from the Harry Winston jewellery store on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris in 2008.
Vique said differences in the ways the thefts were carried out seemed to indicate different parties were responsible.
He also said there was no evidence to link the Sunday robbery to the Pink Panthers gang of jewelry thieves.
A member of the gang, Milan Poparic, 34, of Bosnia, escaped from a Swiss prison last week, the newspaper said.

Another member of the gang escaped prison in recent months, as well.
The Journal said a police officer familiar with the latest case said investigators were considering the possibility it was an inside job or that there was a security systems failure.