Thieves ‘take €600,000 worth of luxury goods’ from Paris home of Saudi princess

The bounty reportedly included more than 30 Hermes bags worth thousands of dollars

Credit: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg

Thieves stole €600,000 worth of luxury goods from the home of a Saudi princess in Paris, a source close to the case said on Friday, including designer bags and fur coats.

The 47-year-old princess, who had been away on holiday in the South of France and had not set foot in the opulent apartment in Paris’s 8th arrondissement since August, discovered on returning that bags, watches, jewellery and furs were missing.

The princess, whose name has not been revealed, was hospitalised on Thursday in a state of shock, and prosecutors have opened a formal investigation which will be handled by the Paris police force’s special anti-organised crime unit.

But it was unclear if there had been a break-in, according to Le Parisien newspaper. The thief or thieves appear to have entered the apartment, situated near the swanky Avenue George V in the heart of the French capital, without using force, the source said, adding that the bounty included more than 30 Hermes bags worth between €10,000 and €35,000 each and a Cartier watch worth €8,000. A spare set of keys to the home was also missing.

Paris has seen a spate of luxury thefts in recent years, and it is not the first time that members of the Saudi royal family have been targets. In 2018, a Saudi princess reported that hundreds of thousands of euros’ worth of jewellery had been stolen from her room at the Ritz, and in 2016, an unidentified female member of the Saudi royals claimed she was robbed of a €1 million watch while walking near the Louvre. 

In a headline-grabbing incident in 2014, a Saudi prince lost hundreds of thousands of euros in cash and diplomatic documents during an armed attack on his convoy as it travelled through the city.