Seven daring jewellery thefts to match Swedish crown jewels heist

Graff Diamonds and Hatton Garden in London, Harry Winston in Paris, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport – jewellery shops, stores and shipments have been a magnet for smash-and-grab raiders and sophisticated operators alike

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The hole thieves drilled through a concrete wall half a metre thick at an underground safe deposit centre in Hatton Garden, London, in 2015 through which they stole an estimated £200 million worth of diamonds and jewellery. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:00pm, 3 Aug 2018Updated: 12:00pm, 3 Aug 2018

Two 17th-century crowns and an orb belonging to the Swedish royal family were stolen from a cathedral outside Stockholm this week in a classic smash-and-grab robbery. As the manhunt continues for the thieves, who struck at noon, smashing a glass box containing the treasures and fleeing by speedboat to a lake dotted with hundreds of islands, we recall seven other daring jewel thefts that have made headlines down the years.

The Palazzo Ducale, Venice, from which jewels worth millions of dollars were stolen in January. Photo: Alamy

2018, Palazzo Ducale, Venice

On January 4 thieves stole Indian jewels worth millions of dollars from an exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale, Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajahs. The theft occurred on the last day of the four-month-long exhibition, which featured 270 treasures from the Mughal empire (1526–1761). Among the items stolen were a brooch and earrings. None of the stolen jewels has been recovered.

Brian Reader, one of the four Hatton Garden jewel thieves. Photo: AFP

2015, Hatton Garden, London

In April 2015, thieves raided London’s Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company, an underground safe deposit facility, and made off with jewels worth £14 million. The heist was carried out by four elderly men (all experienced thieves), who entered the premises through a lift shaft before drilling through the vault’s walls, which are 50cm thick. The four thieves were arrested and jailed for the crime a year later.