It took only seven minutes for thieves in Paris to execute a brazen daylight heist at the famed Louvre museum on Sunday morning, coming away with jewels of “inestimable value” that had once belonged to Napoleon and his empresses.
The Louvre, which is the world’s most visited museum with 8.7 million visitors in 2024 alone, was closed for the day as police investigated how the robbers were able to carry out perhaps the most high-profile theft in modern French history. The closure was “a security measure and to preserve traces and clues for the investigation,” it said in a statement.
The Parisian Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened an investigation into suspected “organised theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime”.
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The robbery at a symbol of French culture has shocked the country and dominated the news on Sunday. It drew a quick response from government ministers, who arrived at the crime scene in the hours after.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the robbery was “a major, highly organized operation” carried out by a team that had done scouting. He told local French radio that the robbers utilized a disc cutter to slice through panes in order to access the jewels.
Nuñez and Culture Minister Rachida Dati both arrived at the Museum after the robbery to discuss investigations with Museum leadership and the police.
Videos at the scene by French media show tourists and museum-goers being ushered out of the museum shortly after its opening, as police cleared the area to begin their investigation.
Here is what we know about the robbery and how the thieves did it.
They used a construction site as cover
French daily newspaper Le Parisien reported that four thieves, masked and hooded, entered the Museum via the Seine-facing facade…
