Diamond robbery losses to harden specie insurance market
22 December 2008
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend – and the media adores them as well – especially when they are being stolen in audacious raids or changing hands for record breaking figures.
The newspapers had plenty to write about this month.
At the beginning of December armed robbers in Paris stole around €80m ($102m/£70m) worth of jewels from one of Europe’s swankiest jewellery shops.
Four robbers, two disguised as women, raided Harry Winston's store near the Champs-Elysee and took virtually everything. It was the second time the shop had been hit in less than two years. Last time, valuables worth around €10m were taken.
French police said the raiders appeared to know their way around, addressed some of the staff by name and knew where stock not on display was being stored. Some of the staff were said to have been hurt in the robbery.
Diamonds back in the news
Gems were back in the news the following week when London jeweller Laurence Graff bought one of the world’s biggest diamonds at Christie’s auction for £16.3m.
The 35.56 carat blue grey diamond, which once belonged to the King of Spain, made a new world record for any diamond sold at auction. The giant sparkler had been expected to earn bids of up to £9m at the auction.
The so-called Wittelsbach diamond, which measures almost an inch across, was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria in the 17th century. It was later owned by the Wittelsbach family of Bavaria, but was in a private collection from the mid-1960s.
The nearest comparable coloured diamond sold at Christie's was one third of the size. The 13.39 carat intense blue diamond fetched £5.5m in May.
Insuring gems
Not surprisingly, insurance is high on the list of priorities for owners of such gems – especially in light of recent events. But underwriters at Lloyd’s, traditionally a centre of expertise for specie insurance, are taking a tougher stance on premium rates and conditions.
Michael Moss, Senior Underwriter of Fine Art & Specie at XL Insurance, says that over the last six to nine months there has been a steady increase in the number of high-value robberies of diamonds, jewellery, and cash-in-transit across the globe.
“The majority of these robberies are highly organised operations carried out with great efficiency,” Mr Moss says. “Faced with these increased losses specie underwriters are focusing more than ever on risk quality and obtaining the right premiums and terms for these risks.”
Recent history of heists
Previous big jewel robberies include a spectacular heist in Antwerp in 2003 when diamonds worth more than €100m ($107m) were taken. In what was dubbed the heist of the century, 123 of the 160 vaults at the Antwerp Diamond Centre were emptied. Most of the gang responsible were later caught.
In 2005, thieves took diamonds and other jewels worth €75m from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. The armed gang hijacked a lorry about to load the valuables onto a flight to Antwerp.
In the UK in 2000, police famously caught raiders red-handed when they foiled a massive diamond robbery at the Millennium Dome. The robbers were trying to snatch £200m worth of the rarest and finest diamonds in the world, including the 203 carat Millennium Star.
Last updated on 22 Dec 2008
