Two robbers stole US $800 000 worth of rare whiskies from renown Parisian liquor store La Maison du Whisky (LMDW) on Sunday 11 November 2017.

Of the rare whiskies stolen, the robbers took off with a rare Karuizawa 1960 known as the Squirrel. It is one of the rarest whiskies in the world with only 41 bottles ever produced. The Squirrel is the oldest single malt from Japan. The whisky, though priceless, is worth about US $200 000.

The thieves are believed to have known what they were looking for. Security cameras captured the pair smashing through the metal shtter and the door of the store located in the on Rue d'Anjou, the thieves then headed straight the collector's room where LMDW's rare whiskies are displayed.

A bottle of Karuizwa 1960

Rare whiskies and collectibles are all the news in the whisky world. Whisky is seen as an investment by many and one way to increase your investment, is to get your hands on rare bottle such as the Karuizawa 1960 for resale. Although LMDW believes that it will be hard to resell the bottle as it is unique, rare bottles such as these could be sold in the black market.

This is all reminiscent of stolen art. We ask the question: is whisky becoming the new art in terms of theft? With only an estimated 10% of stolen art ever recovered, we wonder if the same will be true for these rare whiskies.