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| Scene of the robbery |
A more than one million dollar reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible in the robbery of Jewish Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, according to a statement released by an insurance company.
A subsidiary of Lloyds of London, England, is offering a reward of $1.3 million for information leading to the collection of diamonds stolen at gunpoint in Cannes.
The jewels belonging to Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, were on display in the hotel that appears in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" movie, when a gunman came to the fair on the ground floor, threatened the handful of armed guards, and then disappeared through a side street with $136 million in jewelry, police said.
The theft that occurred at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel is among the largest jewel robberies in history. In 2008, thieves stole $118 million in rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a Harry Winston store in Paris.
Lloyds announced the award on Tuesday.
As we reported earlier, police are looking to arrest and charge a man with armed robbery related charges after stealing $136 million in jewelry from an Israeli billionaire, according to police reports in France.
Police in France said that the jewelry was stolen from a luxury hotel in Cannes on Sunday by one-armed man with an automatic pistol. The theft is the largest ever theft in France.
A man entered the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel on the beach of the French Riviera resort through a terrace and a side window, which was supposedly locked, and stole 34 pieces of jewelry before fleeing, Philippe Vique, the deputy prosecutor of the nearby town of Grasse, and has authority over Cannes, said.
The heist stirred memories of Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 movie "To Catch a Thief" starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, in which expensive jewels disappeared from the same luxury hotel, which also appeared in many other movies.
The jewels stolen Sunday were part of an exhibition of works from the prestigious house of Leviev diamonds, owned by Russian-born Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, who confirmed the robbery. Leviev employees based in London said the company is working with the police and insurance companies. The company refused to confirm the value of the stolen jewels.
Vique said the theft surpasses the previous French record of over $106 million, in a robbery carried out by several men in Paris in 2008.