Disposing of hot Kardashian gems puts robbers in a bind

Pulling off a $10 million dollar jewel heist is one thing-but finding a buyer is another, say experts, predicting that the robbers who targeted Kim Kardashian would struggle to dispose of their loot. Kardashian, the world’s highest paid reality television star, was held up at gunpoint in a luxury Paris apartment in the early hours of Monday.

The robbers made off with a ring worth four million euros ($4.5 million) and a case of jewelry with a value of five million euros ($5.6 million). Sandrine Marcot, acting president of the French union of jewelers and watchmakers, said the value of the haul would “crash” due to the media hype around the heist and the recognisability of the stolen goods. “Everyone knows that ring. It won’t be easy to get rid of it,” a police source said.

Last week, Kardashian had posted a Twitter photograph of her left hand sporting a huge diamond sparkler-reportedly a 20-carat ring by Lorraine Schwartz given to her by her husband, rap superstar Kanye West.” These are not everyday jewels. These are unique pieces,” Marcot told AFP, predicting the spoils of the raid would be cut into smaller gems to conceal their origin. Precious stones often come stamped with a laser mark, making them “extremely easy to trace”, Marcot said. Some laser marks are so deep they are impossible to cover up but others can be concealed by savvy polishing, making the stone “difficulty to identify, unlike, for example, a stolen painting,” the police source said. In most cases, the robbers work with several intermediaries, including a shady jeweler in charge of whittling down the gem into less conspicuous stones.