Thieves steal Napoleon-era jewels in daring daylight heist at Paris’ Louvre Museum

According to reports, police cordoned off the museum and a nearby stretch of road along the River Seine following the incident.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati confirmed the robbery on her X page earlier in the day.

Speaking later to French broadcaster TF1, as quoted by BBC, Dati said one of the stolen jewellery items had been found near the scene of the heist, apparently dropped during the thieves’ escape.

“It is being assessed,” she added.

Dati described the culprits as having “acted professionally, without any violence and without any panic.”

Citing Le Parisien, Le Monde reported that three thieves stole nine pieces from the jewellery collection of Napoleon and Empress Joséphine. The Paris prosecutor’s office said an investigation had been opened for “organised theft” and “criminal conspiracy.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told Le Monde the stolen items were “priceless,” adding that the “three or four” suspects targeted two display cases in the museum’s Apollo Gallery, completing the heist in just seven minutes.

Speaking to France Inter, Nunez said the thieves used a cherry picker mounted on a truck to enter the gallery through a window before heading directly to the display cases. They then fled the scene on scooters.

Police have since recovered one of the scooters and said “all means are being deployed to recover the loot.”

The robbery has renewed concerns about security at French museums, which have seen a spate of thefts in recent months. In September, specimens of native gold were stolen from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, Le Monde reported.

The Louvre Museum

The Louvre, the world’s largest museum, has approximately 73,000 square metres of exhibition space and displays over 35,000 works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Originally built in 1546 as a royal palace for King Francis I, it remained a private collection until the French Revolution in 1789, when it was opened to the public as a museum in 1793.

The Louvre attracts around 30,000 visitors daily and stands as one of the most visited cultural landmarks in the world.