Jewellery worth more than $1 million made by Swiss luxury watchmaker and jeweller Chopard and due to be loaned to stars walking the red carpet at the Cannes film festival were stolen from a hotel, French police said on Friday.
Thieves broke into the room of a Chopard employee, opened a safe and made off with the jewels, police said.
The robbery took place at the Novotel hotel in the centre of Cannes.
Geneva-based Chopard is one of the official sponsors of the festival.
The jeweller redesigned the festival's Palme d'Or award and each year creates jewellery sets for the "mounting the steps" ritual of movie stars and directors.
The Cannes Film Festival has been rescheduled for July 6th to 17th - postponed by around two months due to the ongoing virus crisis, organisers said on Wednesday.
“As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed,” they said in a statement.
“Initially scheduled from 11th to 22nd May 2021, the Festival will therefore now take place from Tuesday 6th to Saturday 17th July 2021.”
The festival was cancelled last year, while rival European events in Berlin and Venice went ahead under strict health restrictions.
The Berlin Film Festival, which usually kicks off in February, said last month it would run this year's edition in two stages, an online offering for industry professionals in March and a public event in June.
France has closed all cinemas, theatres and show rooms alongside cafés, bars and restaurants as part of its Covid-19 health measures and the government has pushed back their reopening date until further notice due to rising levels of viral spread across the country.
The Cannes festival normally attracts some 45,000 people with official accreditations, of whom around 4,500 are journalists.
It had only been cancelled once before, due to the outbreak of war in 1939.
Its Film Market, held alongside the main competition, is the industry's biggest marketplace for producers, distributors, buyers and programmers.
Last year, the festival still made an official selection of 56 films – including the latest offerings from Wes Anderson, Francois Ozon and Steve McQueen – allowing them to use the “Cannes official selection” label.
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