Front cover of book.

A new book is shedding light on the biggest diamond robbery in history. “Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History,” speculates that hairspray was the key component that was used in the theft.In 2003, robbers broke in to the Antwerp Diamond Centre and stole upwards of $100 million in goods. Leonardo Notarbartolo, arrested in Italy last July, is believed to have been the mastermind behind the incredible theft.

Authors Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell pieced together research, interviews with Notarbartolo himself and official documents to recreate the road map for the heist. Campbell is the author of Blood Diamonds and Selby is a lawyer and diamond expert. In creating this book, they pooled their respective talents to discover that, during the robbery, a gang of thieves obscured a camera lens using hairspray and employed other tactics to break in to the Grunberger building and eventually in to the vault itself. Reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, Notarbartolo tells of a replica rehearsal vault built for practice runs.

The book answers longstanding questions regarding how the robbers circumvented security cameras and 9 other layers of security. Long shrouded in mystery, the Antwerp diamond heist has now been laid out in flawless detail, shining light on just how millions of dollars in diamonds were secreted away that fateful February night.