Louvre Jewellery stolen in a bold daylight robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris has been valued at €88 million (£76m; $102m), according to France’s public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau. Speaking to RTL radio, Beccuau called the amount “extraordinary,” but said the greater loss lay in the blow to France’s cultural and historical heritage.
Among the stolen treasures were crown jewels and pieces once gifted by Emperors Napoleon I and Napoleon III to their wives.
The audacious theft took less than eight minutes. On Sunday morning, shortly after the museum opened, a group of four masked thieves used power tools to break into the Galerie d’Apollon (Louvre Jewellery) the same hall that houses some of France’s most valuable royal artifacts.
The gang used a modified truck with a mechanical lift to reach a first-floor balcony overlooking the River Seine. Two of them cut through a glass window using a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum, threatening security guards and prompting an evacuation.
In their haste to flee, the thieves dropped a damaged crown once belonging to Empress Eugénie, which was later recovered along their escape route.
Despite the intervention of a museum staff member who prevented them from setting their getaway vehicle on fire, the robbers managed to escape on scooters. More than two days after the heist, none of the suspects have been caught, and experts fear the jewels may already be lost.
Louvre Jewellery
Beccuau said she hoped publicly revealing the estimated value might discourage the thieves from destroying or dismantling the pieces. “If they have the very bad idea of melting down these jewels,” she warned, “they will not profit from their full worth.”
The Louvre Jewellery stolen collection includes:
- A diamond and emerald necklace gifted by Emperor Napoleon to his wife,
- A tiara worn by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III,
- Several pieces that once belonged to Queen Marie-Amélie.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the robbery as “an attack on France’s heritage.”
Following the incident, security has been tightened at France’s cultural institutions after a preliminary report revealed significant lapses including a lack of CCTV coverage in one-third of the Louvre Jewellery rooms and a failure of the museum’s main alarm system during the robbery.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin acknowledged the serious shortcomings in security, saying the ability of thieves to drive a modified truck up to the museum “leaves France with a terrible image.”
Authorities believe the perpetrators were experienced professionals, given the precision and speed of the operation.
Art recovery specialists warned that investigators have only a narrow window one or two days to recover the items before they vanish permanently. Experts fear the jewels have already been dismantled into separate gems and precious metals, likely smuggled out of France and sold for a fraction of their true value.
