Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Always good drama
The Dresden jewel heist is an irresistible story, especially because jewel heists are extremely rare nowadays. In earlier decades, real crime and stories about crime focused on diamonds and jewels as a portable compact store of value. International jewel thieves were supposedly the most prestigious criminals.
Why is jewel theft rare now? No obvious reason. Insurance companies have ALWAYS done a good job of recording and tracking major private and public collections. The advent of Big Data has made their tracking even more efficient. A recent article (in Atlantic?) showed that reselling diamonds is no longer worth the trouble even within legal channels. Diamonds are only 'liquid' for the original cartel retailer, not for the buyer.
Why were these hugely valuable Crown Jewels so easy to steal using century-old methods?
ZH has the answer.
The pressure is on for the police to find the stolen jewels, since the Saxon state government neglected to insure the collection (very un-German of them), leaving the state on the hook for the loss unless the gems are recovered unharmed.
It's not just the loss. Insurers force clients to adopt good security. Even ordinary home insurance requires fire extinguishers and deadbolts. Insurance for major value gets seriously strict.
If the museum had been German, or just SENSIBLE, they would have paid for insurance and received the added benefit of enforced and well-advised security.
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Speaking of crime vs crime drama, this dude could probably make more money playing a criminal on TV than being a real criminal. Compare him with this '50s actor. Same face.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 5:41 AM
