French police officials say that an estimated $136 million worth of diamond jewelry was stolen from the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes on Sunday, as a gunman was able to easily exploit holes in security to steal items meant for a temporary exhibition at the hotel.

 

Authorities told The Telegraph that the suspect entered the hotel through open French windows while wearing a crash helmet and scarf to cover his face. He simply pointed his gun at staff before entering the bedroom where the jewelry was stored and placing it into a briefcase. 

 

Staff at the Carlton originally estimated the value of the stolen items to be at $53 million, but local assistant prosecutor Philippe Vique said that a review of the exhibition's inventory shows that the value is closer to $136 million. 

 

The jewelry was part of an exhibition at the hotel called Extraordinary Diamonds, which opened July 20 and was scheduled to continue until the end of August. It was held by the Leviev diamond company, owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. The Carlton is most famous for being the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's famous jewel heist film, "To Catch A Thief," and had previously been the site of a jewel heist in 1994, when thieves armed with machine guns stole $45 million in jewelry.

 

Despite the high value of the jewelry, Cannes police say that while hotels usually ask for additional security when displaying valuable items, they had not been warned by the Carlton that the exhibition was taking place. In addition, officials told Reutersthat the windows through which the suspect entered should have been bolted shut, but had been opened due to the summer heat.

 

Vique says that authorities are investigating all possible leads, including whether or not the incident could be connected to the Pink Panther jewel thief gang, a notorious group that has committed hundreds of robberies around the world and which broke one of its members out of a Swiss prison this past Friday. So far, Vique says that police have been unable to connect the suspect with any organized crime rings.

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