To French dismay, eight extremely valuable artifacts of Napoleonic jewelry were stolen from the Louvre in Paris this past Sunday, October 19th. The Louvre has the most tourists of all the museums in the world, and four thieves managed with seeming ease to break in, steal the gemmed jewelry, and escape in eight minutes, only being inside the actual building for four minutes.
The criminals arrived at 9:30am, half an hour after the Louvre’s opening, with their heads covered and under the disguise of construction workers. The robbers took advantage of the fact that the Louvre is currently undergoing renovations, and they brought and used a construction lift to access the second-story balcony.
Next, they used an angle grinder to get through the window and enter the Gallery of Apollo, where they intimidated the guards and broke into two glass cases displaying the jewelry.
The robbers bolted with their stolen artifacts secured and fled on two scooters. Perhaps too hasty in their get-away, they failed to steal Empress Eugénie’s diadem and presumably dropped it as the crown was discovered along the escape path.
The thieves successfully appropriated two diadems, two brooches, two necklaces, a pair of earrings, and one singular earring. This jewelry, composed of emeralds, sapphires, and thousands of diamonds, belonged to various French royals. The historical owners of these precious pieces include Empress Eugénie, who was married to Napoleon III, Empress Marie Louise, Queen Marie-Amelie, and Queen Hortense.
Deputy of the French National Assembly Marine Le Pen described the heist as a “wound to the French soul.” Besides the historical and cultural value of the jewelry, the pieces carry a monetary value of approximately $102 million. It is suspected that the jewelry will be disassembled and reworked by the criminals in order for it to be sellable without suspicion.
Just one month prior to this heist, two other heists occurred in France. $699,000 worth of gold was stolen from the Natural History Museum in Paris and $11 million worth of porcelain from China stolen from a museum in Limoges.
It seems French security needs to be enhanced. According to French media, only two out of three rooms had CCTV surveillance cameras in the region of the Louvre where the jewelry was stolen.
When the Louvre reached out to the government asking for help previously this year, the President of France responded to their request by making the Louvre a part of the New Renaissance project. As a result, the Louvre will go through a ten year process to renovate and improve security so no more heists occur.
