A total of $1 million in jewelry was stolen from a hotel room in Cannes during the annual film festival on Thursday night, according to local police. The room belonged to a Chopard employee, the company that serves as an official sponsor to the festival and lends jewelry to movie stars who are in attendance.
The robbers broke into the room, found a safe containing the jewels, and took off with the $1 million worth of bling, according to France 24 of ITV news . The robbery occurred at Novotel Hotel in central Cannes, and police said the robbers took the safe right off the wall and carried it away. The incident is said to of happened at 5 am, according to The Local .
Outside of lending jewelry to celebrities for the event, Chopard also redesigned the festival’s Palme d’Or award in 1997, which is given to the director of the best feature film.
The Cannes Film Festival began on May 16th and will run until May 26th, though many of the stars won’t be shining in diamonds and gems from Chopard after the robbery. Nevertheless, some stars appeared in Chopard jewels for the opening ceremony.
According to the National Turk , Julianne Moore, Cindy Crawford, and Cara Delevingne were all spotted at the opening ceremony this year wearing Chopard jewels.
This isn’t the first time a robbery has occurred at Cannes, as two international soccer stars from Senegal had their expensive watches stolen in 2012. Souleymane Diawara and Mamadou Niang had over $500,000 worth of watches stolen while they were in attendance at the film festival last year.
High-profile robberies are becoming more common in France it seems, as a group of thieves took off with over $3 million in jewels from a local jeweler in Paris this past February. Less than 24 hours before the snatching in Paris, masked robbers jacked $50 million worth of jewelry on the tarmac at Brussels Airport.
The latest jewelry heist came just as the Cannes Film Festival starting heating up. The Bling Ring premiere was on Thursday after the event was kicked off by The Great Gatsby stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Now the festival at Cannes will move on without their stylish Chopard jewels on display by artists and celebrities while the police search begins for the pricey thieves.
[Image via Swamibu ]
