Louvre Heist: Thieves Make Off with Priceless Jewellery in 7-Minute Raid

Highly organised thieves broke into the world's most visited museum, the Louvre, posing as workmen, and escaped with a haul of historic jewellery worth millions. The gang entered the museum through a 1st-floor window, using a flat-bed truck with an extendable ladder, and stole nine items, including a tiara, an emerald necklace, and earrings. They used a mini-chainsaw to hack into display cases, snatching the jewellery before fleeing on high-powered scooters. The gang was described as "highly organised" and "experienced", with police suspecting they may have been from overseas.

Key Takeaways:

• The heist occurred in just 7 minutes, with the thieves entering through a 1st-floor window using a flat-bed truck with an extendable ladder.
• The gang stole nine items, including a tiara, an emerald necklace, and earrings, some of which once belonged to Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte.
• The stolen items are worth "several tens of millions of euros", with a broken crown adorned with thousands of diamonds and emeralds being discovered beneath a window at the museum worth alone being worth "several tens of millions of euros".
• The museum was shut for the day to allow forensic investigators to start searching for clues, with the French Interior Minister launching an investigation into the robbery and criminal conspiracy.
• The gang was described as "highly organised" and "experienced", with police suspecting they may have been from overseas.
• The heist is reminiscent of the opening scene of Netflix series Lupin, which features the theft of a royal necklace by fictional "gentleman thief" Arsene Lupin.
• The Louvre museum contains 33,000 works of art, including sculptures and paintings, and welcomes nearly 9 million visitors each year, 80% of whom are foreigners.
• The stolen items are highly valuable and have genuine heritage value, with French Interior Minister Laurent Nudez stating that "these are jewels that have genuine heritage value and are, in fact, priceless".
• The gang used high-powered scooters to escape from the scene, with one of the scooters being abandoned nearby.

Statistics:

• 7 minutes: the time it took for the thieves to break into the Louvre and escape with the jewellery.
• 9 items: the number of items stolen by the gang, including a tiara, an emerald necklace, and earrings.
• 33,000: the number of works of art in the Louvre museum.
• 9 million: the number of visitors to the Louvre each year.
• 80%: the percentage of visitors to the Louvre who are foreigners.
• Several tens of millions of euros: the estimated value of the stolen items.
• 1855: the year in which the broken crown was made for Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugenie.
• 1911: the year in which the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Peruggia.
• 1983: the year in which a 16th century helmet and breastplate were stolen from the Louvre, which were later recovered in a family collection in Bordeaux.
• 2010: the year in which a Spider-Man raid on the Museum of Modern Art took place.
• 2024: the year in which four axe and baseball bat-wielding thieves stole seven 18th century snuff boxes from the Musee Cognacq-Jay.
• 2025: the year in which historic samples of unrefined gold, worth PS520,000, were taken from Paris's Natural History Museum.

Sources:

• Alexandre Giquello, president of the Drouot auction house
• French Interior Minister Laurent Nudez
• The Sun
• Paris police department
• The Louvre museum