Armed thieves stole “priceless” jewellery from a gallery within the Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight on Sunday, October 19.
Laurent Nuñez, France’s inside minister, informed France Inter that burglars broke into the Galerie d’Apollon round 9:30am, half an hour after the museum opened to the general public, and made off with “historical” items in a span of simply seven minutes earlier than fleeing on bikes.
Although the precise stock of stolen objects has but to be made public, the Louvre’s d’Apollon gallery is thought for its show of France’s crown jewels. Le Parisien reported that one of many stolen jewels — the diamond-encrusted crown of Empress Eugénie, the spouse of Napoleon III — was later recovered exterior the museum.
Vacationers in line to enter the museum this morning informed the BBC that they had been shortly ushered out by safety guards. The Louvre’s web site says that the museum remained closed for “exceptional reasons” on Sunday and that guests might be reimbursed for his or her tickets.
Hyperallergic has contacted the Louvre for remark.
French law enforcement officials stand subsequent to a mechanical ladder utilized by robbers to interrupt into the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19, 2025. (picture Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
The thieves allegedly used a mechanical ladder generally known as a basket elevate to entry the second-floor gallery, compelled a window, and smashed the show instances in what Nuñez described as an knowledgeable operation executed by professionals.
Dati mentioned on X that there have been no accidents to report. The French authorities has enlisted a specialised police drive to research the theft.
The Louvre, which is the world’s most visited museum, drawing roughly 30,000 guests per day, isn’t any stranger to artwork heists. In 1911, one in all its personal staff notoriously made off with the Mona Lisa. He was arrested years later and the portray was returned. Extra just lately, in 1998, a portray by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was snatched immediately from a wall. It has by no means been discovered.
At the moment’s incident comes simply months after a mass work stoppage shuttered the museum for a number of hours this summer time, with placing staff citing poor working circumstances, overcrowding, and workers shortages on the iconic establishment. Earlier this 12 months, President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a decade-long renovation mission that will revitalize the Louvre’s outdated infrastructure and create a devoted gallery for the museum’s high vacationer draw, the Mona Lisa.
