Four-minute heist at the Louvre: how priceless jewels were stolen in France | Artistic and cultural news

The Louvre museum in the French capital has closed its doors for “exceptional reasons” after a group of intruders managed to steal eight priceless jewels in a swift heist that shook the world’s most visited museum.

A manhunt for thieves was underway in Paris on Sunday as police cordoned off the museum – home to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting Mona Lisa – with duct tape and armed soldiers patrolled its iconic glass pyramid entrance.

French government and museum officials said several intruders entered the Apollo Gallery through a window shortly after the museum opened, relying on an elevator used to hoist furniture into buildings.

In just four minutes, the thieves fled on motorbikes loaded with eight Napoleonic-era objects, dropping a ninth on the way out.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced this robbery on social networks as an “attack against a heritage that we cherish”.

“The perpetrators will be brought to justice,” he added. “Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this, under the leadership of the Paris prosecutor’s office.”

Here’s what we know about the heist, which comes as the Louvre faces questions about large crowds and overworked staff.

What happened?

Around 9:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT) on Sunday, with tourists already roaming the rooms of the Louvre, the thieves focused on the Apollo Gallery – a gilded, richly painted room commissioned by King Louis XIV and home to the French crown jewels.

Describing the incident as a “major theft,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the thieves used a freight elevator to reach the museum’s display cases, entered the gallery and fled on a motorbike with “priceless jewelry.”

The Louvre evacuated all visitors and posted an online notice saying the museum would remain closed all day in “exceptional” circumstances.

Meanwhile, police sealed gates, cleared courtyards and even closed nearby streets along the Seine as authorities opened an investigation.

It was “crazy”, American tourist Talia Ocampo told AFP, “like a Hollywood film”.

No injuries were reported, but the thieves – believed to be four in number – were still at large as of Sunday evening.

What was stolen during the robbery?

The thieves managed to remove eight objects from two high-security display cases, the Ministry of Culture confirmed on Sunday evening. These include pieces that belonged to Empress Marie-Louise, wife of the French Emperor Napoleon I, and others that belonged to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

Here are the stolen items:

• Tiara from the adornment of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense
• Necklace from the sapphire set of the same duo
• A unique earring from the sapphire set
• Emerald necklace from the Marie-Louise set
• Pair of emerald earrings from the Marie-Louise set
• Brooch called “reliquary” brooch
• Tiara of Empress Eugénie
• Another great brooch from Empress Eugénie

Empress Eugenie’s crown was found outside the walls of the museum, the ministry said, where it was abandoned by the thieves as they fled. The crown contains 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, according to the Louvre.

The Apollo Gallery is home to a series of other priceless gems, including three historic diamonds – the Regent, the Sancy and the Hortensia – and “the magnificent collection of hard stone vessels of the kings of France,” according to the museum’s website.

Anthony Amore, an art theft expert and co-author of the book Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists, told Al Jazeera that the objects in the collection were priceless “not just in terms of dollars, but in terms of cultural heritage.”

“It’s not like stealing a masterpiece when the news media… would instantly publish that image,” Amore said. “You might see pieces like this broken and individual pieces of jewelry sold that are indistinguishable to members of the public.”

How did the thieves do it?

The thieves used a combination of power tools, motorcycles and efficiency to pull off the several-minute heist, authorities said.

The group stopped on a scooter armed with angle grinders, a police source told AFP. They used the freight elevator to access the gallery from the outside and cut out the windows with a disc cutter.

A witness, who told TF1 that he was cycling nearby at the time, said he saw two men “climb on the freight elevator, break the window and enter”, specifying that the whole operation “lasted 30 seconds”.

Le Parisien reports that the thieves entered the museum – located inside a former palace – through the facade overlooking the Seine, where construction work is underway. Two of them were dressed as construction workers and wore yellow safety vests, according to the newspaper.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati said authorities arrived “a few minutes after receiving information about this theft.”

“To be completely honest, this operation took almost four minutes – it was very quick,” she said.

Images showed the freight elevator hanging from the facade overlooking the Seine and leading to a balcony window, which observers said was the thieves’ entry point before being removed on Sunday.

What is happening now?

With the thieves still at large, forensic teams descended on the Louvre and surrounding streets to collect evidence and examine CCTV footage from the Denon Wing, where the Apollo Gallery is located, and the banks of the Seine.

Authorities also plan to question staff who worked when the museum opened Sunday, they said.

The Interior Ministry said it was in the process of compiling a detailed list of stolen items, but added that “beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value.”

Dati, the culture minister, suggested the thieves were “professionals”.

“Organized crime today targets art objects, and museums have of course become targets,” she said.

Have similar robberies ever taken place?

The Louvre’s most famous heist took place in 1911, when the portrait of Mona Lisa disappeared from its frame. It was recovered two years later, but decades later, in 1956, a visitor threw a rock at the world-famous painting – chipping the paint near the subject’s left elbow and prompting the portrait to be moved behind bulletproof glass.

In recent years, the museum has struggled with growing attendance, which totaled 8.7 million people in 2024, and with frustrated staff who say they are overstretched.

In June, the museum delayed its opening due to a staff walkout due to chronic understaffing.

A union source, on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the equivalent of 200 positions had been eliminated at the museum over the last 15 years, out of a total workforce of nearly 2,000 people.

The fact that Sunday’s theft took place in broad daylight sparked a wave of consternation among French citizens and politicians.

“It’s simply incredible that such a famous museum can have such obvious security flaws,” Magali Cunel, a French teacher from the Lyon region, told the Associated Press news agency.