Burglars have stolen jewellery from a Paris apartment owned by Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, worth at least €500,000 (about $560,000), Le Parisien reports.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that this hefty sum pertains only to “the most expensive jewellery pieces” and that the exact damage from the burglary has yet to be announced.
The incident reportedly took place on 19 July, when Prince Emanuele Filiberto, his wife Clotilde Courau, a French actress, and their two children were out.
“It was not until their return to the apartment at the end of the day” that they noticed that the jewellery had disappeared and called the police, according to Le Parisien.
Police have opened a probe into the robbery which they admitted will be hard to resolve given that “this kind of burglary is rarely the work of amateurs” and that burglars know perfectly well that selling these “recognisable” jewellery pieces will be a tricky task.
The son and heir of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, 47-year-old Prince Emanuele Filiberto is also the only grandson of Umberto II, the last King of Italy.