Daring Heist at the Louvre: Thieves Pull Off Seven-Minute Jewel Looting Spree

Strategic Insights -

A gang of masked thieves carried out a brazen seven-minute heist at the Louvre in Paris, stealing nine "priceless" jewels from the museum's Galerie d'Apollon on Sunday, October 19. The thieves, described as a team that had been scouting the building, gained entry through a mechanised lift and escaped on scooters, leaving behind a single item, believed to be the crown of Empress Eugenie.

Key Takeaways:

  • The heist took place on Sunday, October 19, at 9:30am in the Louvre's Galerie d'Apollon, where thieves stole nine "priceless" jewels, including items once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte's family and Empress Marie Louise.
  • The thieves used a mechanised lift to gain access to the first-floor window, breaking it with an angle grinder and opening two display cases.
  • The team had been scouting the building, according to France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who warned that investigators have been fully mobilised to catch the culprits.
  • The police found a range of items at the scene, including two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, a crown, and a yellow vest allegedly used by the thieves.
  • The incident has been likened to the popular Netflix drama "Lupin", which tells the story of an infamous French thief, Arsène Lupin.
  • The most infamous theft from the Louvre before this incident was the 1911 robbery of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, when a museum employee stole the painting.

Statistics:

  • 9:30am, Sunday, October 19: Time of the heist at the Louvre
  • 7 minutes: Longest the thieves were in the museum before escaping on scooters
  • 9: "priceless" jewels stolen from the museum's Galerie d'Apollon
  • 2: Number of display cases opened by the thieves
  • 1911: Year of the infamous Mona Lisa theft from the Louvre
  • 1998: Year of the 19th-century painting theft from the Louvre

Sources:

  • Le Parisien
  • France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on French radio station
  • Mayor of Paris Centre, Ariel Weil, on Le Parisien
  • BBC
  • AP News
  • AFP via Getty Images
  • REUTERS
  • The Associated Press