Diamond in the dust: mystery of the missing Ritz Paris ring solved

The mystery of a €750,000 (£640,000) diamond ring believed to have been stolen from the Ritz Paris has been solved, after it was found in a vacuum cleaner bag.

Its owner, a Malaysian businesswoman who had been staying at the exclusive hotel, filed a police complaint on Friday, saying she discovered the ring was missing after returning from a shopping trip.

A day after she raised the alarm the hotel said it was still exploring all leads, including the possibility of burglary. Police "scoured the hotel and prosecutors stood ready to take the case on if the disappearance had turned out to be the result of a theft", said The Standard.

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But in a statement released on Sunday, the hotel said that "thanks to meticulous searches by security agents" the ring had been "found this morning in a vacuum cleaner bag".

The Ritz offered three more nights to the guest to make up for any inconvenience, reported Le Parisien.

While the outcome was "less exciting than many of the theories that had circulated online", said The Guardian, "it would not have been the first time that the celebrated hotel in Place Vendôme had been hit".

An unnamed member of the Saudi royal family reported the theft of jewellery worth about €800,000 from her suite in 2018, and only a few months earlier five armed men made off with jewels worth more than €4 million from display windows inside the hotel.

In fact, jewellery thefts in Paris are far from "unusual", said People. In 2016, Kim Kardashian was held up at gunpoint while she stayed at the nearby Hôtel de Pourtalès. Among the items taken were the reality star's emerald-cut 20-carat diamond engagement ring, "which has never been recovered".