The New Bling Rings

by Natasha Wolff | September 10, 2013 12:00 am

Have we entered a new golden age for jewel thieves? In May, $1.4 million worth of Chopard gems were stolen from a hotel just off the Croisette during the Cannes Film Festival[1]. Within a week, a necklace valued at $2.6 million vanished from a party at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, in nearby Cap d’Antibes, where Sharon Stone, Chris Tucker and Paris Hilton were among the guests. Adding a touch of absurdity to the intrigue, the first robbery came hours after Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring premiered at Cannes.

Two months later, in a crime that would have broken Holly Golightly’s heart, Tiffany executive Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun of Darien, Connecticut, was arrested for stealing more than $2 million from the famed company—including diamond rings, earrings and bracelets, which she then resold. (Lederhaas-Okun pleaded guilty.)

And in a heist that would have impressed the Ocean’s Eleven gang, Inspector Clouseau and Cary Grant, an armed suspect in Cannes stole a reported $136 million in jewels from the Carlton Hotel in July—the biggest robbery in French history. The Carlton, of course, was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 romantic thriller To Catch a Thief, and, in another twist, police believe the culprit may be a member of the notorious “Pink Panther” ring. Here, a look at how it all adds up.

Estimated number of Pink Panther-related robberies

Value of jewelry stolen from Paris Hilton’s house

Minutes into To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock makes a cameo, sitting next to Cary Grant on a bus.

Average salary of a Tiffany & Co. vice president

Audrey Hepburn’s earnings for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (it made her the second highest-paid actress in Hollywood, per film, after Elizabeth Taylor)

Cost of movie ticket in 1955, when To Catch a Thief was released

Consecutive blackjack hands George Clooney lost gambling during his downtime on hte set of Ocean’s Eleven 

eBay listings for “Tiffany & Co.” fine jewelry

MORE:

Cannes After Dark: How the Stars Party on the French Riviera[2]
The West Coast’s Diamond Ring Obsession
[3]How to Buy Estate Jewelry[4]

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