Topline
About $330,000 worth of equipment was stolen Friday from the set of Netflix’s crime series Lupin in France by a masked, fireworks-throwing gang, in the latest example of prop and filmmaking equipment thievery, which goes back to the golden era of Hollywood.
Omar Sy stars as gentleman burglar Assane Diop in Netflix’s series “Lupin.”
Key Facts
There were no injuries during the robbery and filming resumed after three days, Netflix said.
Friday’s robbery follows the February 16 theft of $200,000 worth of props—including silver and gold candelabra, crystalware and a reproduction Fabergé egg—from the set in England of Netflix’s series The Crown.
South Yorkshire Police investigated the Crown prop theft, but “all existing lines of inquiry have now been exhausted,” Netflix told Variety.
Netflix declined to comment on how much the stolen items were insured for or to identify what kind of equipment was stolen from the Lupin set.
Key Background
The Lupin robbery was unusual in that it occurred on set during filming, whereas film industry thieves—such as those who stole props from vehicles near the set of The Crown—typically choose a less confrontational approach. Famous props are more likely to vanish from storage facilities after filming wraps than to be stolen from an active set: In 2018, a $325,000 Iron Man suit used in the 2008 film of the same name was stolen from a warehouse, and, in 2008, a golden gun prop used in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun vanished from a studio display case. However, prop thefts from ongoing productions occur from time to time—a prop gun was stolen from the set of 1982’s Blade Runner during filming and used to make reproductions, and, in 2001, four Spider-Man suits were stolen from the set of Sam Raimi’s eponymous film. Jeffrey Glenn Gustafson, a Warner Bros. security guard, was later sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for participating in the theft of the Spider-Man costumes, though the culprit behind the presumed Blade Runner theft has never been identified.
A pair of ruby slippers featured in 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” on display at New York City’s Plaza … [+]
Tangent
Vanished props sometimes take years to locate. An Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery’s James Bond was reportedly found in the Middle East in August 2021, 24 years after it vanished from a hangar in the U.S. In 2018, the FBI recovered a pair of ruby slippers featured in 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz 13 years after the slippers were pilfered from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2017, a 1968 Mustang GT driven by Steve McQueen in the 1968 action thriller Bullitt and that vanished shortly after production wrapped was discovered in a Mexican junkyard and restored.
Contra
Though iconic props may grab more attention, movie-industry thieves often target high-ticket hardware like cameras. In summer 2021, a group of burglars broke into movie production houses and equipment rental companies around Georgia, making off with over $3 million in equipment. In 2019, two men broke into a Los Angeles cinematographer’s office, walking off with a Phantom Flex4K camera weighing just 13 pounds but worth over $100,000.
Further Reading
“‘Lupin’ Restarts Production After Dramatic Robbery on Set, Second Theft on Netflix Show in a Week” (Variety)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/03/02/lupin-set-robbery-is-part-of-a-long-tradition-of-hollywood-prop-pinching/