Eyewear stolen at Silmo

On October 22 and the first day of Silmo, various companies had an unpleasant surprise when they got to their stands: the new eyewear collections for 2005 had vanished.

The first to report the theft and issue a press release was Alvea, whose entire collection of Lancaster eyewear decorated with natural diamonds and valued at around 50 thousand euros, has been stolen.

But they weren't the only ones. A few hours later Immagine Eyewear, producers of the X-Ice line, reported that half its 2005 samples had disappeared: 149 pairs of glasses out of 300. And then First Optic, whose stand is near the Italian company's, had 310 items stolen, almost its entire stock.

According to witness statements received by our editorial team, there was a long queue to report the thefts at the external Commissariat responsible for the exhibition area. In addition to immediate financial damage, exhibitors also reported damage to future sales: in fact many of them were without new samples to put on display and had to meet additional costs to get them sent quickly from their head offices.

The exhibitors also complained about the lack of assistance by Silmo organizers: the exhibition's internal Commissariat made them go to the external department, but the police did not come to the stands to investigate until the afternoon, even though the thefts had been reported early that morning.

Lancaster even placed a card on its stand saying: 'Everything has been stolen: our thanks to Silmo for its excellent organization'. There are in fact only 12 night-watchmen to cover the whole exhibition area.