PARIS (AP) — During a strike lasting a few minutes Sunday inside the world’s most visited museum, thieves took a basket elevator to get to the Louverforced open a window in the Apollo Gallery – while tourists crowded side by side in the corridors – smashed the display cases and made off with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said.
It is one of the most high-profile museum thefts in recent memory and comes as Louvre employees complain about understaffing and security.
An object was then found outside the museum, according to Culture Minister Rachida Dati. French daily Le Parisien reported that it was the emerald-studded crown of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III – in gold, diamonds and carved eagles – found just beyond the walls, broken.
Dati called the work strike “professional”, describing it on the TF1 channel as “a four-minute operation carried out without violence”.
Footage from the scene showed confused tourists being directed out of the glass pyramid and adjoining courtyards as officers closed nearby streets along the Seine.
An elevator attached to the facade overlooking the Seine, near a construction zone, was also visible – an extraordinary vulnerability in a palace museum.
A museum already under pressure
Around 9:30 a.m., several intruders forced open a window, cut glass with a disc cutter and walked straight toward the storefronts, officials said. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the crew entered from the outside using a cherry picker.
The choice of target compounded the shock. The vaulted Apollo Gallery in the Denon wing, topped with a ceiling painted for Louis XIV, presents a selection of the crown jewels of France. The thieves would have approached through the riverside façade, where work is underway, would have used a freight elevator to reach the hall, would have taken nine pieces from a collection of 23 pieces linked to Napoleon and the Empress and would have fled on a motorbike, according to Le Parisien.
Daylight thefts during public hours are rare. Performing one inside the Louvre – in the presence of visitors – is among the most daring in Europe since Green Vault Museum in Dresden in 2019, and the most serious in France for more than a decade.
It also runs up against a deeper tension that the Louvre has struggled to resolve: growing crowds and overworked staff. The museum delayed its opening during a staff walkout in June due to overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions say mass tourism leaves too few sights on too many venues and creates pressure points where construction zones, freight routes and visitor flows meet.
Security around high-profile works remains tight — the Mona Lisa sits behind bulletproof glass in a custom-made, air-conditioned enclosure.
It’s unclear whether staffing levels played a role in Sunday’s violation.
The Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous dates back to 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia and found two years later in Florence.
Today, the former royal palace houses a symbol of civilization: Leonardo’s Mona Lisa; the armless serenity of the Venus de Milo; the winged Victory of Samothrace, whipped by the wind on the Daru staircase; the Code of Hammurabi, the engraved laws; Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix; The Raft of the Medusa by Géricault. More than 33,000 works – from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters – attract a daily tide of up to 30,000 visitors even as investigators now begin to sweep these golden corridors for clues.
Politics at the door
The heist immediately spread to politics. Far-right leader Jordan Bardella used it to attack President Emmanuel Macron, weakened at home and faced with a fractured Parliament.
“The Louvre is a global symbol of our culture,” Bardella wrote on
The criticism comes as Macron touts a decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan – around 700 million euros to modernize infrastructure, reduce overcrowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031. For workers on the ground, the relief seemed slower than the pressure.
What we know – and what we don’t know
Forensic teams are examining the crime scene and adjacent access points while a full inventory is taken, authorities said. Officials described the loot as having “invaluable” historical value.
Recovery could prove difficult. “It is unlikely that these jewels will ever be seen again,” said Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds. “Professional teams often dismantle and recut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, thereby erasing their provenance. »
The Louvre closed its doors for the rest of Sunday as police sealed the doors, cleared the courtyards and closed surrounding streets along the Seine.
The main unanswered questions are how many people participated in the theft and whether they received internal assistance, authorities said. According to French media, there were four perpetrators: two dressed as construction workers with yellow safety vests in the elevator and two each on a scooter.
Investigators are examining video surveillance cameras from the Denon Wing and the riverfront, inspecting the freight elevator used to reach the gallery and questioning staff who were on site when the museum opened, authorities said.
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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
