The exhibition organized at the hotel in Cannes belonged to the Leviev house, owned by the Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, the owner of a shopping mall in Bucharest. Cannes police had not been informed of the existence of the exhibition, as it usually happens in such cases.
The heist lasted only a few minutes and the thief disappeared with the spoil before the police came without firing a single bullet
It seems, however, that in haste, he dropped some jewels. But even so, he still has enough. Initially, the local press had rated them at 40 million, but the final estimate is 102 million Euros. The figure surprised even the hotel employees who had no idea what riches were laying around them.
Carlton Hotel, celebrating its centenary this year, is famous, among other things, as having been the setting of a 1956 Hitchcock film about ... A jewelry thief.