Only a corrupt jeweler could change the size and shape of the diamond.
As reports suggest the masked men who made off with $10 million worth of Kim Kardashian West’s jewelry are believed to have taken her prized 15-carat diamond ring, many are questioning how such a famous ring could fly under the radar.
John Kennedy, president of the Jewelers Security Alliance, said that in order to fence a ring that recognizable, thieves would likely have to find a corrupt jeweler to change the shape and size of piece.
“The average jeweler is not gonna touch this with a 10-foot pole,” he told Inside Edition.
Rare diamond rings like Kardashian West’s are etched with a serial number, which is not visible to the naked eye.
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“We've seen in the past a stone of this size might be sent to a center in Antwerp for re-cutting, to remove any laser inscription that might be there,” Kennedy said, noting that such a ring also might be kept out of the limelight for years.
“Criminals may keep the stone for some number of years, not just one or two, but five or 10, and then have it sold later on,” he said.
Kardashian West received a second, identical ring — save for a bigger stone — as an anniversary present from her husband, Kanye West.
It was not clear if that ring was stolen in the Paris robbery as well.
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Kardashian West posted a photo of one of her rings on Instagram three days before the robbery.
A spokeswoman for police in Paris said such behavior could have led thieves to target Kardashian West.
"Clearly when you have a star like Kim Kardashian who has more than 48 million followers on Twitter... I think this could have happened abroad just as easily as in Paris," Johanna Primevert, chief spokeswoman for the Paris police department, told the Associated Press Tuesday.
"It was really the celebrity who was targeted, with possessions that had been seen and noticed via social media, and it was these goods that the attackers targeted," she said.
Theories abound about who was behind the brazen robbery, as some speculate it could be the work of notorious jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers.
The gang has reportedly been linked to heists at jewelry stores and hotels across Europe, a loss of about $300 million worth of valuables.
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