Everything we know about the Louvre jewellery heist

The Louvre Museum in Paris remains to be closed on Monday whereas police examine a brazen heist which focused France’s priceless crown jewels.

Thieves wielding energy instruments broke into the world’s most visited museum in broad daylight, earlier than escaping on scooters with eight extraordinarily worthwhile gadgets of jewelry.

Here’s what we all know in regards to the crime which has shocked France.

The gang reportedly arrived at 09:30 native time, shortly after the museum opened to guests.

4 suspects arrived with a vehicle-mounted mechanical raise to realize entry to the Galerie d’Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) through a balcony near the River Seine.

Photos from the scene confirmed the ladder main as much as a first-floor window.

Two of the thieves bought inside by chopping by the window with energy instruments.

They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and minimize by the glass of two show circumstances containing jewels.

A preliminary report has revealed that one in three rooms within the space of the museum raided had no CCTV cameras, in line with French media.

French police say the thieves had been inside for 4 minutes and made their escape on two scooters ready exterior at 09:38.

This can be a “very painful” episode for France, mentioned Natalie Goulet, a member of the French Senate’s finance committee.

“We’re all disenchanted and indignant,” she mentioned, and it’s “obscure the way it occurred so simply.”

Goulet advised the BBC the gallery’s localised alarm was just lately damaged, and “we’ve to attend for the investigation as a way to know if the alarm was disactivated”.

France’s tradition ministry mentioned the museum’s wider alarms did sound and workers adopted protocol by contacting safety forces and defending guests.

The gang had tried to set hearth to their car exterior however had been prevented by the intervention of a museum staff-member, the tradition ministry added.

Tradition Minister Rachida Dati advised French information outlet TF1 that footage of the theft confirmed the masked robbers getting into “calmly” and smashing show circumstances containing the jewels. Nobody was injured within the incident.

She described the thieves as seemingly being “skilled” with a well-prepared plan to flee on two scooters.

Round 60 investigators are engaged on the case and prosecutors mentioned their idea is that the robbers had been underneath orders for a legal organisation.

The search is on for 4 suspects and investigators are finding out CCTV footage from the escape route.

One witness described scenes of “whole panic” because the museum was evacuated. Later photographs confirmed entrances closed off with metallic gates.

In keeping with the authorities, eight gadgets had been taken, together with diadems (a jewelled headband), necklaces, ear-rings and brooches. All are from the nineteenth century, and as soon as belonged to French royalty or imperial rulers.

France’s ministry of tradition mentioned the stolen gadgets had been:

• A tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, spouse of Napoleon III
• An emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from Empress Marie Louise
• A tiara, necklace and single earring from the sapphire set that belonged to Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• A brooch referred to as the “reliquary brooch”

Between them, these items are adorned with hundreds of diamonds and different treasured gem stones.

Empress Eugénie’s crown was discovered broken on the escape route, investigators mentioned, apparently having been dropped in the course of the escape.

Inside Minister Laurent Nuñez described the stolen jewels “priceless” and “of immeasurable heritage worth”.

“There’s a race occurring proper now,” Chris Marinello, the chief govt of Artwork Restoration Worldwide, mentioned.

Crowns and diadems can simply be damaged aside and offered in small components.

The thieves “aren’t going to maintain them intact, they’re going to break them up, soften down the dear metallic, recut the dear stones and conceal proof of their crime,” Marinello mentioned.

It will be troublesome to promote these jewels intact, he mentioned.

Earlier this yr, officers on the Louvre requested assist from the French authorities to revive and renovate the museum’s ageing exhibition halls and higher shield its artistic endeavors.

On the time, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged the Louvre can be redesigned as a part of the New Renaissance mission – anticipated to price between €700 million and €800 million (£608m – £695m; $816m – $933m). The mission contains strengthened safety.

The Louvre stays closed on Monday whereas investigations into the theft proceed.

In a message on its web site, the museum mentioned guests who had already booked tickets can be robotically refunded.

Police and safety personnel may very well be seen across the web site’s well-known glass pyramid entrance on Monday. Steel obstacles have additionally been put up.

No info has been given about when the museum might reopen to the general public.

The Louvre is all the time closed on Tuesdays, so the earliest it may reopen this week can be Wednesday.

The theft has prompted a political outcry in France, with Macron calling the raid “an assault on our historical past”, Nationwide Rally chief Jordan Bardella mentioned it was a “insupportable humiliation” and Marine Le Pen of Entrance Nationale known as it a “wound to the French soul”.

In 1911, an Italian museum worker was in a position to make off with the Mona Lisa underneath his coat after lifting the portray – which was then little-known to the general public – straight off the wall of a quiet gallery.

It was recovered after two years and the offender later mentioned he was motivated by the idea the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece belonged in Italy.

Fewer chances are high taken with the Mona Lisa lately: the portray, maybe probably the most famend within the museum’s assortment, hangs in a high-security glass compartment.

In 1998, the Le Chemin de Sevres – a nineteenth century portray by Camille Corot – was stolen and has by no means been discovered. The incident prompted an enormous overhaul of museum safety.

There was a latest spate of thefts focusing on French museums.

Final month, thieves broke into the Adrien Dubouche Museum in Limoges and stole porcelain works seemingly price €9.5m ($11m / £8.25m).

In November 2024, seven gadgets of “nice historic and heritage worth” had been stolen from the Cognacq-Jay Museum within the capital. 5 had been recovered just a few days in the past.

The identical month, armed robbers raided the Hieron Museum in Burgundy, firing photographs earlier than escaping with tens of millions of kilos price of twentieth century artworks.