Historic Jewels Stolen From Louvre in Seven Minute Heist
In one of the boldest art heists in recent memory, thieves pulled off a broad daylight robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday morning, escaping with priceless French Crown Jewels in just seven minutes.
What Was Stolen?
Among the missing items are:
- An emerald and diamond necklace and earrings gifted by Napoleon to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, featuring 32 emeralds and over 1,100 diamonds
- A sapphire and diamond diadem, necklace, and single earring worn by several French queens, including Marie-Amélie and Hortense de Beauharnais, with the diadem containing 24 Ceylon sapphires and over 1,000 diamonds
- The reliquary brooch, once owned by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napolean III, encrusted with 94 diamonds including the 17th and 18th-century Mazarin stones
- A diamond bow brooch and a pearl diadem, both worn by Empress Eugénie
- A ninth item — Empress Eugénie’s crown — was also stolen but later recovered near the scene, damaged during the attempted getaway.
How Did It Happen?
The Galerie d’Apollon, home to France’s royal jewellery collection, was targeted at around 9:30 a.m., shortly after the museum opened. According to French officials, four masked thieves used a truck with a mechanical lift to access a balcony near the River Seine. They cut through glass panes with power tools, broke into two high-security display cases, and made off with eight historic pieces before fleeing on scooters.
The operation was shockingly swift and precise. Culture Minister Rachida Dati said the footage showed that the thieves “don’t target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave”. No violence was reported, and the guards quickly evacuated visitors once the alarms sounded.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed that the robbery was well-prepared, and that the building's ongoing construction work might have made it easier for the thieves to blend in or access tools.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin didn’t mince words: “We failed.” He pointed to a complete breakdown in museum security. A preliminary report is said to show that a third of the gallery’s rooms had no surveillance cameras, and that alarms may have been broken before the heist.
President Emmanuel Macron called the robbery “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history.”
Senator Nathalie Goulet expressed widespread anger: “We are all disappointed and angry… this is organised crime… they don’t appreciate jewellery as a piece of history, only as a way to clean their dirty money.” She added that the stolen jewels are likely to be melted down or dismantled, warning that they could enter money laundering networks.
“The Theft of the Decade”
Experts are calling this one of the most devastating art thefts in recent memory.
Art detective Arthur Brand said this is “the theft of the decade”, warning that the pieces are too famous to be sold intact. Their likely fate? The jewels will be cut, the gold melted, and history erased.
Chris Marinello of Art Recovery International echoed that fear, saying that if the thieves are not caught in the next 24 to 48 hours, those pieces are probably long gone.
What’s Next?
The Louvre remains closed on Monday as forensic teams combed the scene. Authorities are scouring CCTV, social media footage, and witness reports. Some visitors described scenes of panic, with people banging on glass doors, unable to exit.
Police believe they have a narrow window — possibly a week — to catch the culprits before the historic artifacts are lost forever.
As one of the world’s most-visited museums, the Louvre has seen high-profile thefts before — including the 1911 heist of the Mona Lisa — but this one strikes a nerve because of its link to France’s royal legacy.
And as one official put it bluntly, “The French people all feel like they've been robbed.”
