Paris: In a four-minute heist on Sunday inside the world’s most-visited museum, thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said.
The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory and comes as staff complained that crowding and thin staffing are straining security.
The theft unfolded just 250 metres from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a professional “four-minute operation.”
The basket lift used by thieves to enter the Louvre on Sunday.Credit: AP
One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. It was reportedly recovered broken.
According to Le Parisian, the robbers used an aerial lift and an angle grinder to break in through the window of the iconic French attraction.
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.
Police officers work by a basket crane used by thieves.Credit: AP
“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 jewellery had been recovered outside the museum, apparently dropped as they made their escape.
French Police officers seal off the entrance to the Louvre following the heist.Credit: Getty Images
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.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the thieves made off with eight priceless objects.
He said they did not target or steal the world-famous Regent diamond, which is housed in the same gallery the thieves hit, Beccuau said on BFM TV. Sotheby’s estimates the Regent is worth over $60 million ($92.6m).
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 specialised 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 scrutiny
Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum’s ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art.
Dati said the issue of museum security was not new.
The Louvre.Credit: Bloomberg
“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 organised crime – professionals.”
AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
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