Thieves have stolen “priceless” jewelry from the Louvre in Paris, the world’s most-visited museum, in an audacious seven-minute raid on Sunday, the French interior minister has said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told radio station France Inter: “A major robbery took place this morning in the Apollo Gallery. Individuals entered the Louvre museum from outside, using an external freight elevator that was positioned on a truck.”
The Apollo Gallery houses the French Crown Jewels, as well as treasures including Louis XIV’s hardstone vessel collection.
Two high-security display cases were targeted, and eight items were stolen, including a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, the French culture ministry said in a statement.
The thieves forced open a window using an angle grinder and stole jewelry that has “sentimental value and is priceless,” the interior minister added.
There were “three or four perpetrators,” Nuñez said.
Minister of Culture Rachida Dati told French TV station TF1 that one piece of jewelry had been found near the Louvre and was being evaluated.
TF1 and newspaper Le Parisien said the recovered piece was the crown of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. The ornate gold piece, which features 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, was damaged in the heist, they said. The French culture ministry confirmed the crown had been “abandoned” by the thieves as they fled the scene.
The crown of Empress Eugénie is displayed at the Louvre Museum in January 2020. French media reported the crown had been recovered after the robbery on Sunday, but suffered damage. – Stephanie de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
“Beyond their market value, the items have inestimable heritage and historical value,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “everything is being done” to catch the suspects.
“The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage we cherish because it is part of our history,” Macron said on X, “ We will recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
A detailed list of the stolen items released by the culture ministry revealed a single earring from the sapphire parure of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, an emerald necklace and pair of emerald earrings from the parure of Empress Marie-Louise, the “reliquary brooch,” and the tiara and large corsage bow brooch of Empress Eugénie were stolen in the heist.
An attempt to set fire to the truck used to carry out the raid was foiled by a Louvre security officer, forcing the burglar to flee, according to the culture ministry’s statement.
An investigation for “aggravated theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy to commit a felony,” has been opened by Paris police under the authority of Paris public prosecutor’s office.
‘Get out, evacuate’
The robbery took only seven minutes, with the suspects fleeing on motorcycles, Nuñez told France Inter.
“Clearly, a team had been scouting the location. It was obviously a very experienced team that acted very, very quickly,” the interior minister said.
“I am confident that we will very quickly find the perpetrators and, above all, recover the stolen goods,” he added.
Video from the scene showed French police examining an abandoned furniture elevator positioned next to a corner of the Louvre, with its ladder leading up to a broken window off a balcony.
According to Le Parisien’s reporting, the police have found “two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket and a crown” at the scene of the robbery. A yellow vest used by the perpetrators to disguise themselves as workmen was found a bit further away, lost during their escape, the newspaper said.
French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers on Sunday to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand in Paris. – Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
A tour guide told CNN how he had heard what sounded like “stomping” on the window as he led tourists through the Apollo Room, before hearing shouts from security guards to evacuate.
“I was just trying to figure out what’s happening when I saw the museum staff going to that noise. Then they did a turn around, like real quick, and they started running and saying ‘get out, get out, get out, get out, evacuate!’” Ryan el Mandari said.
He tried to keep his group of visitors calm as they left the building, he said, adding that they heard the sounds but “had no clue that it was a robbery.”
Robbery planned ‘meticulously’
The French interior ministry said the incident took place at 9:30 a.m. local time and that members of the public had been evacuated without incident.
Dati said the robbery had taken place as the museum opened. “No injuries were reported. I am on site alongside museum staff and the police. Investigations are ongoing,” Dati said in a post on X.
The museum, which houses world-famous artworks including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, said it would remain closed on Sunday due to “exceptional reasons.”
The interior ministry later said the closure was a security measure to preserve evidence for the investigation.
The mayor of Paris Center, Ariel Weil, told reporters that the thieves had “planned this meticulously, obviously” and that he could not recall the Louvre being the target of a robbery in more than a century. “I’m thinking, of course, of the Mona Lisa sting in 1911, but I can’t think of any more recent robbery,” he said.
Last year, the Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors, with tourists from the United States making up 13% of all guests, second only to the French.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Melissa Bell contributed to this report.
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