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Thieves have broken into the wine cellar of two Michelin star restaurant Maison Rostang in Paris and stole €400,000 worth of fine vintage wines.
About 150 bottles from Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti were lifted and the restaurant’s owners claimed they can “never be identically replaced”.
Other wines stolen came from top Bordeaux estates Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Petrus, in what was clearly a sophisticated and planned robbery which restaurant owners have likened to a bank heist. It appeared that thieves gained access to the cellar by cutting a hole in the cellar wall.
Michel Rostang, chef and founder of the two-star Michelin restaurant, said, ‘We are very hurt by this theft, because this collection has taken 40 years to build.’
The cellar contains about 50,000 bottles according to the restaurant’s website, but only specific bottles and vintages were targeted.
When high-value art is targeted by thieves, in most cases it is carried out ‘to order’, and the world disappears into a private collection never to be seen again. In rare cases stolen wines are traced as was the case when €300,000 worth of wine stolen from Thomas Keller's French Laundry was found after the chef appealed to the wine community on social media and local police were able to locate the vintages in a private cellar in North Carolina.
Police have launched a probe into the robbery and the two-Michelin star restaurant remains open. The restaurant’s owner thanks friends and diners for all the messages of support they have received.
