Thieves strike Louvre in daring jewel heist as the world's most visited museum shuts

PARIS: Robbers wielding power tools scaled a furniture hoist outside the Louvre to make off with priceless jewellery from the world-renowned museum on Sunday (Oct 19), taking just seven minutes for the broad daylight heist, sources and officials said.

The criminals struck at about 9.30am local time when the museum had already opened its doors to the public.

They entered the Gallerie d'Apollon (Apollo's Gallery) building, which is home to the French Crown Jewels, the Interior Ministry said in a statement without specifying what had been taken.

"The investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled. Beyond their market value, these items have priceless heritage and historical value," the statement said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the thieves used a basket lift, forced open a window and smashed display cases. No injuries were reported, either among the public or among Louvre staff or law enforcement officers.

The brazen robbery happened just 800m from Paris police headquarters.

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".

Police sealed off the museum and evacuated visitors. New arrivals were turned away, and nearby streets were closed.

AFP saw a police forensics team arrive and go into the museum, while uniformed soldiers with automatic rifles patrolled the Louvre's famed esplanade.

The crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was found broken near the museum afterwards, a source following the robbery said, asking to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

It features golden eagles and is covered in 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, according to the museum's website.

"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.

"Ideally, the perpetrators would realise the gravity of their crime and the dimension they've entered into, and return the items, since the jewels are completely unsellable," Giquello said.

"We’re touching on the history of France ... It’s a completely incomprehensible act, because the perpetrators will have every police force in the world on their tail, and in my opinion, they’ve put themselves in a very precarious situation," he added.

SEVEN MINUTES

On France Inter, Nuñez described a "major robbery", saying the intruders "entered from the outside using a basket lift" and that the panes were cut with a disc cutter. He said it was "manifestly a team that had done scouting".

Pieces usually on display at Apollo's 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.

Nuñez also told several French news outlets that "three or four" thieves had focused on two displays, completing their robbery in just seven minutes.

Le Parisien reported the thieves entered via the Seine-facing facade, where construction is underway, and used a freight elevator to reach the gallery. After breaking windows, they reportedly stole nine pieces from the jewellery collection of Napoleon and the Empress, the paper said.

A police source earlier said the robbers had drawn up on a scooter armed with small chainsaws and used a goods lift to reach the room they were targeting.

A witness named Samir, who was riding a bicycle nearby at the time, told the TF1 news outlet that he saw two men "get on the hoist, break the window and enter ... it took 30 seconds".

He said he saw four of them subsequently leave, and he called the police.

SERIES OF HEISTS

Several French museums have recently been targeted.

Last month, thieves broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth €600,000 (US$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 artefacts 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.

The Louvre also has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. 

The most infamous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence - an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.

In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armour were stolen and only recovered nearly four decades later. The museum’s collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting that continues to spark restitution debates today.

Home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting - from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters - the Louvre’s star attractions include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. 

The museum can draw up to 30,000 visitors a day and last year it welcomed 8.7 million visitors.

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 he hoped that the works could help increase the annual number of visitors to 12 million.