Robbers wielding power tools scaled a furniture hoist outside the Louvre to make off with priceless jewelry from the world-renowned museum on Sunday, taking just seven minutes for the brazen, broad-daylight heist, sources and officials said.
The hunt was still on for the culprits, whom officials said were experienced and did not hurt anyone in the spectacular theft. France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati said one of the stolen items was found near the museum.
The robbery — the latest to target a French museum in recent months — forced the closure for the rest of the day of the Louvre, home to some of the world’s most famous artworks, including the Mona Lisa.
Armed soldiers patrolled the landmark’s esplanade, around the famed glass pyramid serving as its main entrance, while police teams were seen going inside. Evacuated visitors, tourists and passersby were kept at a distance behind police tape, while roads alongside the museum were closed off.
“Please, don’t waste your time, just go home and get a refund from the website,” one museum worker told a visitor barred from entering.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said three or four thieves had used the furniture hoist to steal “priceless” goods from two displays in the museum’s “Gallerie d’Apollon” (“Apollo’s Gallery”). It was not immediately clear what items were stolen from the gilded gallery, which is home to the French crown jewels.
Pieces on display in the targeted gallery include three historical diamonds — the Regent, the Sancy and the Hortensia — as well as an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie-Louise, it said.
Angle grinders
The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40 am (0730 and 0740 GMT) for their robbery, a source following the case said. The museum opened to the public at 9 am. separate police source said the robbers had drawn up on a scooter armed with angle grinders and used the hoist — an extendible ladder used to move furniture — to reach the room they were targeting.
The brazen robbery happened just 800 metres (yards) from Paris police headquarters. The Louvre said on X it was closing its doors for the day “for exceptional reasons”. It did not immediately mention the robbery.
The Louvre did not wish to immediately provide further comment. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation and the value of the loot was still being estimated.
Series of heists
The Louvre used to be the seat of French kings, until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s. It is the world’s most visited museum, last year welcoming nine million people to its extensive hallways and galleries.
Louis XIV commissioned the “Gallerie d’Apollon” himself. It later served as a model for the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles. In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. It was recovered months later and today sits behind theft- and vandal-proof glass.
Several French Museums have recently been targeted by thieves. Last month, criminals broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth 600,000 euros ($700,000).
They used an angle grinder and a blow torch to steal the native gold, a metal alloy containing gold and silver in their natural unrefined form.
In November last year, four thieves stole snuffboxes and other precious artifacts from another Paris museum in broad daylight, breaking into a display case with axes and baseball bats. They snuck into the Cognacq-Jay museum wearing gloves, hoods and helmets, striking in full view of other visitors to the museum.
French President Emmanuel Macron in January pledged the Louvre would be “redesigned, restored and enlarged” after its director voiced alarm about dire conditions inside. He said at the time he hoped that the works could help increase the annual number of visitors to 12 million.
