Thieves broke into Paris’ Louvre museum by using a crane and smashing an upstairs window on Sunday, stealing priceless jewelry from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes, the French government said.
The robbery is likely to raise awkward questions about security at the museum, where officials had already sounded the alarm about lack of investment at a world-famous site that welcomed 8.7 million visitors in 2024.
The thieves struck at about 9.30 a.m. (0730 GMT) when the museum had already opened its doors to the public, and entered the Galerie d’Apollon building, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The robbery took around four minutes, Culture Minister Rachida Dati told TF1, and it was carried out by professionals.
“We saw some footage: they don’t target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave. No violence, very professional,” she said on TF1.
She said one piece of jewelry had been recovered outside the museum, apparently dropped as they made their escape.
Dati declined to say what the item was, but newspaper Le Parisien said it was believed to be the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie. The jewel was broken, the newspaper said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France Inter that three or four thieves got into the museum from outside using a crane that was positioned on a truck.
“They broke a window, headed to several display cases and stole jewels … which have a real historical, priceless value,” Nunez said.
Probe underway
A video posted on X by a museum guide showed visitors filing towards exits in the middle of their tour, initially unaware of the reason for the disruption.
Nunez said a probe had been opened, with a specialized police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies such as this one tasked with running it.
No injuries were reported, Dati said.
The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, said on X it would remain closed for the day for “exceptional reasons.”
In one of the most daring art thefts in history, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the museum in 1911 in a heist involving a former employee. He was eventually caught and the painting was returned to the museum two years later.
Questions on security
Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum’s aging exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art.
Dati said the issue of museum security was not new.
“For 40 years, there was little focus on securing these major museums, and two years ago, the president of the Louvre requested a security audit from the police prefect. Why? Because museums must adapt to new forms of crime,” she said. “Today, it’s organized crime – professionals.”
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, additional reporting by John Cotton and Helen PopperEditing by Tomasz Janowski, Alison Williams, Helen Popper and Gabriel Stargardter)