Some Famous Jewelry Thefts

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Gems from a collection once-owned by the late first lady of Argentina Eva Peron, which had been stolen in Spain two years ago, have been found in Milan. Here are some of the most famous-jewellery thefts:
 
1. The Harry Winston store in Paris was robbed in the December of 2008. What sets this robbery apart, aside from the fact that over £68m of jewellery was stolen, is the fact that the three robbers-came in disguised as women. These "women" forced the salespeople to loot the store at gunpoint. No one has ever been arrested for the crime.

2. The Damiani showroom in Milan was also robbed in 2008. The thieves accessed the showroom by slowly drilling a hole into the shop's basement from the basement of a construction zone next door. These thieves entered Damiani-during a private showing, dressed up as hired police help, and walked away with over £12.4m worth of gold and jewels.

3. In 2003, the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium, was robbed of over £62m worth of diamonds. The Antwerp Diamond Center holds 160 underground vaults that are used to hold diamonds. In this robbery, 123 of the 160 vaults were-emptied, by a group of burglars known as the School of Turin. An Italian businessman with supposed connections to the Sicilian Mafia, Leonardo Notarbartolo, was pinpointed as the chief planner and participant in a blatantly-inside job in Antwerp. He was convicted after his arrest on the basis of mainly circumstantial evidence and is now in his sixth year of a ten year sentence in prison. The diamonds have never been recovered.

4. In 2002, the Museon Museum of Science in the Netherlands-housed an exhibit that showcased a number of royal jewels worth about £7.4m. No alarms were ever set off during the theft and the only damage to the museum was the shattered glass of the exhibit that held the jewels. To this day, the theft completely baffles the local authorities.

5. While-travelling to the Schiphol Airport in 2005, a KLM Cargo truck carrying approximately £73m worth of diamonds was intercepted and hijacked by men wearing authentic KLM uniforms. The audacious robbery ranks as one of the-largest diamond thefts to date.

6. The biggest jewellery heist ever to occur on British shores was pulled off on 12th August 2009 by two well-dressed men who carried more than £40 million in necklaces, watches, rings and bracelets out of Graff Diamond-Store in London's Mayfair. Two men believed to be responsible for the theft were-arrested.  

source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk