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On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process.
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 largely a mystery.
Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist. Tracking the threads of the story 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.
In February 2003, a band of professional Italian thieves known as "The School of Turin" carried out the largest diamond heist in history: half a billion dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables from the ultra-secure vault of the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium. This narrative account takes readers on a global adventure into the secret world of diamond dealing. It investigates how the thieves discovered the building's security flaws, details the night of the heist, and recounts the thieves' eventual capture, drawing on documents from several countries and interviews with prisoners, underworld figures, and diamond dealers around the world. The book includes an appendix on other historic heists, plus a few b&w photos and maps. Selby wrote a Master's thesis on diamonds. Campbell is an award-winning journalist who also wrote Blood Diamond, which inspired the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Presents an account of the largest diamond heist in history as "The School of Turin" stole half a billion dollars in diamonds and other valuables from the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium.
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- New York : Union Square Press, c2010.
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