Louvre thieves will have a hard time selling stolen jewels, says master jeweler:

The thieves who took priceless treasure of the Louvre you may have difficulty profiting from it.

The French government evaluated the pieces -including an exquisite tiara and sapphire necklace worn by French royalty- in about 102 million dollars. But Stephen Portier, a Parisian master jeweler and gem appraiser, says that only happens if they are intact.

If thieves remove the jewelry from its settings to sell on the black market, it will be worth much less, Portier said.

“Dismantled and sold as stones and metals, their value falls by 90%,” he stated.

Like many jewelry professionals, Portier harbors a glimmer of hope that the police will catch the thieves and recover intact historical pieces. But he knows the the chances are slim. With so much attention paid to the pieces, it will be very difficult to sell them as is. It will also be highly illegal to buy them.

“The fine jewelry market is big,” he said. “But the network is small. In the world of gemstones, everyone knows each other.”

“Everyone knows about this theft. The dealers will have photographs of each piece in their offices,” he continued. “So if they think they’re being offered diamonds from the Louvre… they’ll ask some tough questions and contact the police.”

It is likely that the Louvre has detailed descriptions of the precious stones from the treasures that were taken in the shameless robberyin which thieves entered through a window and smashed antique display cases before escaping with the treasure. The thieves took nine pieces, but dropped Empress Eugenia’s crown as they escaped.

Each stone in the stolen pieces has “unique properties,” such as its weight, color and small impurities, Portier said. These descriptors “are like the DNA of the stones.”

Some of the pieces, particularly a bow-shaped brooch with elaborate tassels, contain hundreds of small diamonds. Even these smaller stones will be difficult for thieves to fence.

They are at least a century and a half old and cut in a distinctive antique style. Criminal specialists could try to cut them out to disguise them, Portier says, but that would make them even smaller and much less valuable.

Among the stolen items was an exquisite diamond and pearl tiara.

“Old pearls, especially large ones, are easy to identify by their shape and color,” Portier said.

In theory, it is possible to make the large pearls it contains unrecognizable with a risky process known as peeling, Portier said.

“You need a solvent like perfume or hairspray. They dissolve the surface of the pearl and hide the tiny cracks of age,” Portier explained. “But it is a dangerous game, because it can expose the bottom layer, which may have an unattractive color, and therefore the pearl suddenly becomes much less valuable.”

Since getting rid of the jewelry will be difficult and not very profitable, why did the thieves commit such a risky crime?

“Good question,” Portier said. “Good question.”

In:

• Paris
• France
• The Louvre
• Heist