The proprietor of Modern Relics, a jewelry boutique and gallery in the Inner Richmond, announced yesterday that her store had been robbed.
“My saddest day,” wrote owner and jewelry designer Alix Blüh on Instagram. “My beautiful shop and atelier has been robbed and vandalized in the most sickening way. My cases were destroyed, all the beautiful antique displays ruined.”
It took Blüh a few weeks to process the incident before posting the news on social media, she told Gazetteer SF over the phone today. She explained that the burglary occurred late at night on August 12 or in the very early morning the next day.
Blüh arrived around 10 a.m. on August 13 to discover the shop, which she has run at 771 Cabrillo St. for 18 years, in total disarray.
“The door had been completely destroyed and crowbarred open,” she said. Inside, she found several glass jewelry cases shattered and her lock-up chest containing her most valuable pieces emptied out.
“Broken glass everywhere. Just hideousness everywhere, just everything destroyed,” Blüh said. “He got everything. Just everything. Well over 150 unique, one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry that were gold, diamond, dendritic agate, you know, just beautiful, museum-quality jewelry.”
Among the broken glass and strewn furniture, Blüh also found surfaces covered in “solvents and powder,” chemicals she said the burglar must have taken from under the sink. She speculated the perpetrator was possibly trying to remove traces of DNA left at the scene, but ultimately, “It’s anybody’s theory” to what their motivation really was.
“There was an element of craziness that was beyond the pale. Like, he went into my mini fridge, took out a bottle of wine, went upstairs, and smashed it over the tool chest” where she kept her most precious pieces, she said.
Blüh referred to the perpetrator as “he,” but said the San Francisco Police Department has not yet identified a suspect. The security cameras inside Modern Relics were destroyed, but Blüh said a neighbor’s security cameras captured footage of “a small frame person” arriving at and leaving the scene on an electric scooter that night.
SFPD did not respond to Gazetteer’s request for comment in time for publication.
Between the stolen goods and property destruction, Blüh estimated the robbery will cost her somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 worth of damage.
In the comments of Blüh’s Instagram post about the incident, customers, neighbors, and other local businesses offered their condolences and support. One of them tagged Mayor Daniel Lurie to ask if the city could do anything to help. Blüh’s sister, Cami, set up a GoFundMe this afternoon, with a $50,000 goal to help cover the repairs. As of press time, they had raised $200.
The store, a fixture in the neighborhood for nearly two decades, remains temporarily closed for repairs. Blüh says her business will look different upon reopening. She noted that in the last few years, the price of gold has risen to record highs. “When I started working in gold, it was $250 an ounce,” Blüh said. Today, an ounce of gold hovers around $4,700. That trend has not only made her overhead more expensive but also may have put a target on her business. After finding her life’s work ransacked, she said her jewelry career is over.
“I want to make it for the community. I want to make it an art space,” Blüh said of her plans for the store. “But I’m not going to sell expensive jewelry anymore.”
