Page 70 - All About History - Issue 16-14

10 Daring Heists

The Crown Jewels heist

1792
Even the
Royal Treasury
500,000 wasn’t safe in
FRANCS’ revolutionary Paris
WORTH OF PEARLS, GOLD
AND SILVER JEWELLERY
In the 18th century, France
and its opulent monarchy
had become the epitome of European decadence.
And since no monarchy would be complete without
a set of crown jewels, the French king was the proud
owner of one of Europe’s most lavish collection
of diamonds and pearls. First worn by Francis I,
the original set of crown jewels consisted of six
diamond-encrusted items and a bevy of other
priceless items with price tags valued in the millions.
As the line of succession moved through the years,
the jewels were used by the crown to levy loans to
France’s allies, but it wasn’t until the very dawn of
the revolution that the jewels played a pivotal role.
With the country quickly descending into chaos,
the National Assembly demanded the state of the
crown jewels be valued immediately. They were
then subsequently placed under heavy guard in
the Garde-Meuble and opened to public viewing. A
week later, when the items were revalued some of
the jewels had been taken and a meagre 500,000
francs (around £584,000) remained. The thieves
were never caught, but most of the collection was A painting depicting the 1830
eventually recovered, with rulers such as Napoleon I July Revolution which saw the
and his successors adding to the collection later on. overthrow of King Charles X
Antwerp diamond heist VAstberga

15 16 feb 2003
helicopter robbery
An Italian master 23 Sept 2009
OVER thief makes the
$100 steal of the century
MILLION Fact meets fiction
IN GOLD, DIAMONDS AND A heist has to be pretty when robbers
JEWELLERY
UNKNOWN, BUT A
impressive to be dubbed REWARD OF 7 MILLION stage a heist with
the ‘robbery of the century’, SWEDISH KRONOR a helicopter
but when a group of thieves stole $100 million (£600,000) WAS
worth of gold and diamonds from the World OFFERED It might sound like
Diamond Centre in Antwerp, Belgium, the world Those responsible for the something pulled straight
stood up and took notice. During the summer Vastberga robbery were from an action film, but when a group of armed
sentenced to prison in 2010
of 1998, a man named Leonardo Notarbartolo men attacked a haul worth millions of Swedish
rented a small office space in the centre – the kronor from a G4S security centre then made off
same building that happened to hold on a waiting helicopter, fiction merged with fact.
160 highly guarded lockboxes jam- The security depot was unloading a number of
packed with loot. Five years later, freight crates filled with foreign currency when a
between 15 and 16 February 2003, van smashed through the compound’s gate and
Notarbartolo, posing as an Italian swerved to a halt outside the main processing
diamond merchant, used the key centre. A group of masked robbers then smashed
card from his office tenancy to gain the windows of the centre with sledgehammers
access to the lockbox room. Once before making their way inside. While the majority
there, he and a five-man team of of the group began gathering cash, the remainder
thieves forced open 123 of the boxes proceeded to the roof and planted explosive
and made off with one of the biggest devices near the firm’s own helicopters before they
hauls in criminal history. all escaped on a stolen helicopter of their own.

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