Cannes Film Festival 2013 has somewhat disspointing start with the festival's sponsor Choppard reporting a theft of jewels worth 1million dollars from a hotel.
The jewels were stolen from the Novotel hotel where the Choppard employee was staying.
According to the local police, thieves managed to take away the safe containing the ornaments breaking it out from the wardrobe. The police believe the incident occurred before 5.00 am (0300GMT).
Initially, it was reported that the jewels worth 1.4 million dollars were missing after the heist but Chopard dismissed the amount.
In an official statement, Raffaella Rossiello, Chopard spokesperson said, "We can only let you know that the value of the pieces stolen is far lower than the figures announced in the media."
"The jewels stolen are not part of the collection of jewels that are worn by actresses during the Cannes Film Festival."
However, the company assured that the prestigious Palme d'Or trophy or Golden Palm, which the company redesigns every year, is very much safe.
The top award consists of 118 grammes of yellow gold over a rock crystal at base.
This year, Julianne Moore, Lana Del Rey, Cindy Crawford, China's Fan Bingbing and Spain's Blanca Suarez were seen donning Chopard jewels in the Red carpet.
What is interesting is the report of jewels being stolen surfaced just at the time of the premiere of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" which coincidentally is a true story about a group of teens who used to rob the celebrities of their valuables by breaking into their homes.
A similar incident was reported last year when four expensive watches running into $513,000 were stolen from soccer stars Souleymane Diawara and Mamadou Niang. They had come to attend the festival.
