Jewellery worth £185,000, belonging to Sophia Loren, the film actress, was stolen on Saturday night from the Norwegian barn at Elstree, which she has rented as a temporary home while making a film of Shaw’s “The Millionairess”.
The jewels, which included three sets of diamonds, emeralds and rubies, were in a leather case which was taken from a chest of drawers. These had been forced. Some of the jewels were insured.
M. Pierre Rouve, producer of the film, said yesterday that they must have been taken between 8 and 10 pm while Miss Loren was at London Airport meeting her husband, Carlo Ponti, the producer. Three servants were in the house when the robbery took place, including Miss Loren’s Italian personal maid.
M. Rouve said Miss Loren was once a very poor girl and for her the jewels symbolised her struggle for success. She was particularly upset that the theft should have happened in Britain where she had got the greatest satisfaction from her work. It was perhaps significant that she was wearing the jewellery when she arrived in England on May 10. Scotland Yard has been given photographs of Miss Loren wearing the jewellery, for identification purposes. Detectives also took photographs of marks found on a window.
The barn in which Miss Loren is living was imported from Norway about a hundred years ago and was converted several years ago into a luxurious home. It has accommodated a succession of visiting film stars working at Elstree, half a mile away. Miss Loren is the second Hollywood film personality to have jewellery stolen in England within a few days. Jewellery and furs worth about £5,000 were stolen on Friday from Gregory Peck’s Ascot home which he has rented while he is filming in this country.
Loren was never reunited with all her jewellery despite Peter Scott, the British criminal dubbed the King of the Cat Burglars, boasting that he was the man behind the theft.
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