Armed robbers steal €40 million of jewels from Cannes hotel A handgun is said to have been brandished at those staging the exhibition, but no shots were fired, and nobody was hurt. A Cannes police spokesman said: "A full and urgent operation is underway to catch the culprit and recover these jewels. Thieves see Cannes as rich pickings. The hotel was hosting an exhibition of diamonds owned by Lev Leviev, a Russian-born Israeli billionaire diamond dealer, businessman and philanthropist. Huge pink posters advertising the month-long exhibition, which opened last week, adorn the Belle Époque hotel - which serves as the unofficial headquarters of Hollywood during the annual film festival. Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco there, while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have made the hotel their home during the festival. The 100-year-old palace has also featured in a host of music videos and films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. Leviev, the company which owned the diamonds, sources the gems from its own mines around the world. Mr Leviev, 57, owns diamond mines in Russia, China and Africa, and is a major competitor to South African diamond firm De Beers in Angola. On the company website they describe themselves as "one of the largest diamond manufacturers in the world and one of the largest privately held cutter and polisher of diamonds, with exclusive access to some of the world's most unique stones and the industry's most extraordinary assortment of large, rare and coloured diamonds." Mr Leviev, whose Jewish family fled Uzbekistan for the Soviet Union and started working as diamond polishers, counts Roman Abramovich among his close friends. A deeply-religious father of nine, he is based in London with his wife Olga, where they live in a £35 million house in Hampstead, complete with Versailles-style stone staircase, carved replica of a chimney piece at Cliveden and an expansive indoor pool and spa. In March 2012 won a High Court battle against his former business partner, Arkady Gaydamak, over charges that he owed Mr Gaydamak $1 billion in commissions and dividends connected to Angolan diamonds. Forbes magazine puts Mr Leviev's fortune at $1.5 billion as of March this year, and says that he is the 12th richest man in Israel. The brazen theft is the third high profile jewellery heist in Cannes this year. During the first week of the film festival in May, gems worth $1.4 million were stolen from a suite in the Novotel hotel, which had been rented by an employee of Chopard, the jewellers. The entire safe in the suite was removed from the wall and taken during the night. Someone entered without forcing the door or using the magnetic key card, a police source said. A week later a diamond necklace worth €2 million disappeared during a star-studded party at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, despite 80 bodyguards, local police, hotel security, and jewellery company staff being on duty. "We don't know exactly what happened - it was one of the most beautiful items we had," said Fawas Gruosi, the founder of the Swiss firm De Grisogono, which owned the necklace. Police in Nice have opened an investigation into Sunday morning's robbery, but were unable to confirm the reports of how the theft happened.