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The heist of the century! Ten years before the recent Brussels diamond theft, daring diamond thieves made off with gems worth almost twice as much. On February 15, 2003, thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in Antwerp, never tripping an alarm, and made off with over $108 million worth of diamonds and other valuables.Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years. The “who” of the crime had been answered, but the “how” remained a mystery.Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, embarked on a global chase to uncover the true story behind the stunning heist. Tracking the threads of the crime throughout Europe—from Belgium to Italy, in seedy cafés and sleek diamond offices—the authors sorted through an array of conflicting details, divergent opinions and incongruous theories to put together the puzzle of what actually happened that Valentine’s Day weekend.This real-life Ocean’s Eleven—a combination of diamond history, journalistic reportage, and riveting true-crime story—provides a thrilling in-depth study detailing the better-than-fiction heist of the century.
Take a few Italian jewel thieves, one supposedly impregnable vault and millions in diamonds and you have the makings of a fine movie. Or in this case a very well-researched non-fiction book. Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Cambell takes a look at the heist at the Diamond Center in Antwerp. The robbery in 2003 was the biggest diamond heist the world has ever seen. The book goes through the background behind the crime, scrupulously detailing the work of the School of Turin, a group of mostly small-time thieves who pulled off the score of a lifetime. The book isn't as much for jewelry lovers as it is for true crime aficionados. The story highlights the ways the Diamond Center's security was lacking, small details unnoticeable to most, that were easily spotted and capitalized on by the School of Turin's Leonardo Notarbartolo. Given the incredible multi-year planning process it is pretty interesting to note that the jewel thieves are caught, not at the crime, but later, partially because they did such a shoddy job of clean-up, tossing valuable clues to the crime in a trashbag in the woods and roping in an innocent friend to tidy up the hideout. In jewel thievery as in other things, good follow through is a must.Of course the most intriguing part is that most of the jewels remain unrecovered. They are out there somewhere and could literally be anywhere at this point, spread out around the world, little bits of portable wealth sold off here and there. I'd love to see a sequel focusing on the ways that diamonds are sold off after a heist like this. Sometimes they are recut, sometimes laser inscriptions are removed it's all part of the world's black market diamond industry which even with global strictures in place, continues to thrive.
