Thieves in balaclavas broke into Paris’ Louvre museum yesterday, using a crane to smash an upstairs window, then stealing priceless objects from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes, officials said.
The robbery raises awkward questions about security at the museum, where officials had already sounded the alarm about lack of investment at a world-famous site, home to artworks such as the Mona Lisa, that welcomed 8.7 million visitors in 2024.
“The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history,” President Emmanuel Macron said on X.
“We will recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
The thieves struck in the morning when the museum had already opened its doors to the public, and entered the Galerie d’Apollon building, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on BFM TV.
The robbery took between six to seven minutes and was carried out by four people who were unarmed, but who threatened the guards with angle grinders, she said.
A total of nine objects were targeted by the criminals, and eight were actually stolen. The thieves lost the ninth one, the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, during their escape, Beccuau said.
“It’s worth several tens of millions of euros – just this crown. And it’s not, in my opinion, the most important item,” Drouot auction house president Alexandre Giquello told Reuters.
Beccuau said it was a mystery why the thieves did not steal the Regent diamond, which is housed in the Galerie d’Apollon and is estimated to be worth more than $60m by Sotheby’s.
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