Willem Dafoe's Rome apartment burgled

Thousands of dollars worth of jewellery has been stolen from Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe's Rome apartment.

Dafoe was not in the property at the time of the break-in, but an American friend staying there later told authorities that she had received an alert from an in-house alarm system.

The New York Post's Page Six quotes Italian news agencies as reporting that the thieves used mountain-climbing equipment and rope in order to illegally enter Dafoe's home.

A police sourced claimed that more than $4,200 (£2,601) of the actor's personal items had been taken, but Dafoe's rep insisted that a more accurate figure is around $3,000 (£1,858).

Dafoe, who declined to offer a personal comment, shares the apartment with Italian wife Giada Colagrande, whom he married in March 2005.

He is currently on location in New Mexico filming the adaptation of Dean Koontz's popular novel Odd Thomas.

He will next co-star with Taylor Kitsch and Samantha Morton in the sci-fi epic John Carter of Mars, which is released on March 9, 2012 in the US and the UK.

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