Image: Alix Blüh via Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon (source)
The jewelry studio burglary at Modern Relics in San Francisco’s Richmond District is the kind of story that should make every small, appointment-only jeweler stop and rethink the overnight routine. Owner and designer Alix Blüh told the Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon that a burglar took gold, diamonds and two decades of her handmade jewelry, and she estimates the loss, damage included, at $200,000 to $300,000. None of it was insured, and she says the 20-year-old shop on Cabrillo Street won’t return as a high-end jewelry store.
Here’s how it went down. Blüh walked over from her home on the morning of Aug. 13 and found the front door broken, the display cases smashed and the metal locker upstairs, where she kept her most valuable work, cleaned out. San Francisco police say Richmond Station officers responded around 10:50 a.m., confirmed an overnight burglary with damage at the entry, and handed it to the department’s Burglary Unit, which still lists it as an open investigation. Cameras inside and out recorded one masked, hat-wearing person entering and leaving, plus two people outside who may have been keeping watch.
What gets me is that Blüh did a lot of the things we usually tell people to do. She never put valuable jewelry in the windows, and customers had to be buzzed in. That didn’t help much once the shop was empty overnight. She now thinks she was cased. She remembers a couple in the past six months who wanted to photograph everything, and a man who asked to look around, glanced at both floors for maybe 30 seconds and hurried out. She also says other Bay Area jewelers and galleries have been hit in similar ways, including a colleague’s Sausalito studio about six months ago, and she suspects thieves are using Instagram to find targets.
For independent makers, the insurance angle is the real gut punch. According to a GoFundMe set up by her family, specialized coverage for a jewelry studio came with costs and restrictions that didn’t fit how she ran the business. So when the gold and castings vanished, there was nothing to replace them. Blüh says she can’t put another $200,000 into gold and castings at this stage, and she will never again keep anything of high value in the space. If you run a studio, a buzz-in door and a quiet street are not a security plan. Pieces need to go into a rated safe or off-site each night, a camera should cover the street as well as the door, and it’s worth getting a real jewelers block quote before deciding it’s too expensive.
Blüh plans to reopen on a smaller scale, maybe one weekend a month, selling ceramics and more affordable beaded pieces and letting other makers use the space for pop-ups. I’d also take her casing story seriously. If someone shows more interest in your layout than your jewelry, write it down, save the footage and tell your neighbors in the trade. Anyone with information can reach SFPD at 415-575-4444.
Key Takeaways
- A burglar emptied Modern Relics in San Francisco's Richmond District overnight on Aug. 13; the owner estimates $200,000 to $300,000 in losses, and none of it was insured.
- Security video shows one masked person going inside and two others outside who may have been lookouts; SFPD's Burglary Unit is still investigating.
- Appointment-only access and bare windows didn't stop it, so overnight safe storage, logs of suspicious visits and the right insurance matter even for small studios.
Source: Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon: More Than $200K Stolen From Cabrillo Street Jeweler, Modern Relics
