The greatest-ever watch heist?

For more than 20 years 'The Queen' rested in a cardboard box, shrouded in an old newspaper. This was the fate of one of the costliest pocket watches in the world, a brilliant masterpiece by the clockmaker Louis Breguet that was completed in 1827, a full 44 years after it was commissioned for Marie Antionette. It disappeared from public view in a burglary that took place on April 15, 1983, after many years of having been on display at the small LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem. There it formed part of a collection of 106 antique timepieces, among them the 'Sympathiques' clock - another Breguet masterpiece - and a pistol-shaped clock made by the Rochat Brothers. . .

Only this winter, 25 years after the burglary, did the Israeli police permit publication of the fact that a man who 40 years ago had become a criminal legend in Israel had committed the daring robbery single-handedly. Naaman Diller has been dead for fours years now, but the revelation that the former kibbutznik was the thief links two amazing stories from the annals of Israeli crime.

Full story here. It appears that a few of the timepieces were sold, but that most of them (and surely all of the most important ones) were squirreled away for decades by the thief.

Posted by David on November 21, 2008 8:59 AM