An Expensive Diamond Ring Has Gone Missing From The Ritz Hotel In Paris
In early December, a diamond ring worth €750,000 went missing from the room where its owner was staying at the Ritz hotel in Paris.
According to the French publication Le Parisien, the jewel was reported missing on Friday 8 December. It was to be found after just two days of searching, in a less expected place: the vacuum cleaner bag of the cleaning staff.
The ring's owner, a Malaysian staying at the Ritz, went to the police to file a report. She said she had left early in the morning to go shopping and on her return, the ring she had left in her room was gone.
Photo: Room in Hotel Ritz, Paris (Source: Screenshot)
Where It Was Found
On Sunday 10 December, the staff of the famous Parisian Ritz hotel announced that it was not a theft and that the jewel was found in a vacuum cleaner bag.
"Thanks to a meticulous search by security guards, the ring was found this morning", hotel officials said.
"Our client is delighted with this news. We want to thank the staff at the Ritz Paris who mobilized so much for this search and who work with integrity and professionalism every day", the company added.
The guest had traveled to London on Friday, but after hearing the good news, she returned to Paris for her ring, according to BBC.
The Ritz said it has offered three more nights to the guest to make up for the inconvenience.
Not The First Time
There have been previous reports of jewelry going missing from the hotel.
2018 saw the legendary establishment's jewelry shop be robbed of almost €4 million worth of goods by five armed attackers.
Subsequently, the same year, an unidentified member of the Saudi royal family revealed that hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of jewelry had been stolen from her hotel suite.
Ritz Hotel, A Symbol Of Luxury And Extravagance
The Ritz Hotel in Paris has been a symbol of luxury and extravagance for more than 100 years, one of the most famous hotels in the world since the Belle Epoque.
The Ritz was opened in 1898 in the heart of Paris on Place Vendôme by Swiss hotelier César Ritz with chef Auguste Escoffier and is said to have been the first hotel in Europe where every room had a bathroom, electricity, and a telephone.
The Ritz soon became famous, making a name for itself as a luxury hotel. Crowned heads, statesmen, writers, film stars, and singers came here. That's why today many of the hotel's suites are named after famous guests they hosted in the past, including Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who lived at the Ritz for years.
The site on which the hotel stands today was bought in 1705 by Antoine-François Bitaut de Vaillé and a private residence was built there, occupied over the years by several noble families. Later the Hôtel de Gramont was opened there, and in 1854 the building was bought by the Péreire brothers and converted into the headquarters of a financial institution.
In 1888, the Swiss hotelier César Ritz and his friend, the French chef Auguste Escoffier, opened a restaurant in the resort of Baden-Baden, and a year later they were invited to become the first manager and chef of the luxurious Savoy Hotel in London, where they remained until 1897.
The hotel was an instant success: run by the Prince of Wales and managed by the Ritz, the Savoy quickly attracted a distinguished and very wealthy clientele. The two left the hotel in 1897 after a scandal over the disappearance of some very expensive drinks, but not before being encouraged by customers to open a similar hotel in Paris.
The Ritz bought the monumental building on Place Vendôme and completely renovated it into a 210-room hotel. The Ritz designed the hotel to offer wealthy guests "all the refinement a prince would want for his own home". So each room was equipped with its own bathroom, electricity, and telephone, and the decorations and furnishings were chosen to the highest standards.
The hotel was opened on 1 June 1898 with an extraordinary party and was an instant success. Together with the talented chef Escoffier, who could please the most demanding guests, the Ritz made the hotel a symbol of opulence, so much so that a new word entered the vocabulary of French and English: ritzy, synonymous with elegance and extravagance.
The hotel quickly became a favorite with Parisian high society and foreigners alike. Over the years, Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, King Edward VII, and Coco Chanel, who lived at the Ritz for more than thirty years, have stayed here.
