$1 million worth of jewelry was stolen from a hotel room near the Cannes Film Festival. The thieves actually ripped a safe from the wall in the burglary.

The thieves broke into a hotel room at the Novotel near the Cannes Film Festival. An employee of Chopard, a Swiss-based watch and jewelry maker and festival sponsor. They made off with around $1 million worth of jewelry.Around the same time, Chopard was holding a gala event in a different luxury hotel.

Chopard has owned jewelry to stars to wear on the red carpet for years. This year, model Carla Delevingne and actress Julianne Moore have appeared on the red carpet in Chopard jewelry. Cannes just started, so there will probably be many more to come.

"The jewels stolen are not part of the collection of jewels that are worn by actresses during the Cannes film festival," Chopard spokeswoman Raffaella Rossiello told press.

A police officer said that he didn't know exactly how much the jewelry was worth or how many pieces were taken, but "Numbers have been put forward that we're still trying to verify, but the figure of $1 million ... we're in that range."

"It seems pretty unlikely to us that it was just one person," the officer said. "Apparently this (hotel guest) was someone who was targeted because it wasn't someone who had been seeking attention. ... There must have been either inside complicity, or people who were in contact with this person and knew that the person had jewels," he said.

Still, Robertson said press are exaggerating-- "The value of the pieces stolen is far lower than those in the figures circulating in the media," she said.

The theft took place sometime between 7 pm Thursday and 3 AM Friday, when the employee got back to his hotel room. He may have been attending a Chopard gala at the Hotel Martinez across town.  The Novotel is a business hotel that is much less ritzy.

One of the films being screened at the festival is  Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring", about celeb-obsessed LA teenagers who break into star's homes while they are at a premiere or another event to steal their valuables.

Chopard makes the Palme d'Or trophy awarded each year to the top film at Cannes.  Organizers said the trophy was safe.  Authorities are going over surveillance cameras and speaking to witnesses.