Thieves stole “priceless” jewelry from the Louvre in Paris in an audacious seven-minute raid that took place just after the world’s most-visited museum opened on Sunday.
CNN: In what appeared to be a professional heist, the robbers used a truck-mounted ladder to gain access to the Apollo Gallery, one of the most ornate rooms in the Louvre, and made off with artifacts from the French Crown Jewels, dating from the Napoleonic era.
Two high-security display cases were targeted, and eight of the nine items taken remain unaccounted for, including a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, the French culture ministry said in a statement.
In a highly professional raid, four balaclava-wearing thieves pulled up outside the Louvre on a road along the Seine River. At about 9.30am – half an hour after visitors began entering via the front of the museum – the robbers positioned themselves at the south side of the building and used a vehicle-mounted extendable ladder to reach the second-floor balcony window. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that an organized crime group was behind the theft. The interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said the raid was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team.
Stephanie de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
The thieves dropped or left behind one item – the crown of Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III. The ornate gold piece, which features 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, was damaged in the heist, prosecutors said.
The justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, admitted on Monday to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels, giving France a terrible image,” he told France Inter radio.
Nunez acknowledged that securing museums was a “major weak spot”. He noted that security measures at the Louvre had been strengthened in recent years, and would be reinforced further as part of a multimillion-euro overhaul of the museum.
As alarms rang out in the museum, alerting guards, the robbers quickly left, escaping on motorbikes and leaving behind some of the equipment used in the raid. The gang tried to set fire to the vehicle before they left but they were prevented by a member of museum staff.
From Reuters: The robbery took between six and seven minutes and was carried out by people who were unarmed but who threatened guards with angle grinders, a prosecutor said. The probe has been entrusted to a specialist police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies. The museum announced it was closing and visitors filed out
Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, an organization specializing in the recovery of stolen art, said most museums complained they did not have enough funding for security. “The Louvre is one of the most well funded museums in the world. And if they’re going to be hit, every museum is vulnerable,” he told Reuters.
The Guardian: Has this happened before? The Louvre has a long history of thefts, possibly the greatest being by an Italian decorator who briefly worked there and stole the Mona Lisa in 1911. Vincenzo Peruggia entered the museum dressed as a museum worker. When no one was looking, he removed the painting and sneaked out. He was later arrested and the painting recovered.
Another notorious episode came in 1956, when a visitor hurled a stone at the Mona Lisa, chipping paint near her left elbow and hastening the move to display the work behind protective glass.