The heist at the Louvre on Sunday morning, which saw thieves flee with eight royal jewels, has raised questions about how well France's priceless historical artefacts and cultural heritage are being protected.
Issued on: 19/10/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Sunday's raid targetted the Gallerie d'Apollon (Apollo's Gallery) © Martin Bureau, AFP
A raid on France's top museum that saw thieves flee with royal jewels has raised awkward questions about how well the country's priceless cultural heritage is being protected.
How could robbers with power tools break in and steal crowns, sapphire and emerald necklaces? And how can a museum spanning 73,000 square metres and housing around 35,000 works of art be secured?
The government said authorities had already begun reviewing security at the vast Paris venue before the heist. Labour unions there have complained that security staff positions have been cut.
Here are some of the issues raised by Sunday's drama.
Security warning decades ago
The Louvre's then director Pierre Rosenberg warned that the museum's security was "fragile" after a painting by French master Camille Corot was stolen in broad daylight in 1998.
Taking over in 2021, its current director Laurence des Cars asked the Paris police to conduct a security audit of the museum.
Following this audit, recommendations were made "a few weeks, a few months ago", said Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Sunday after the raid.
Read moreThe Louvre heist: A look at other famous robberies in museums worldwide
They "are beginning to be implemented", she said, without elaborating.
Contacted by AFP, the Louvre did not comment.
The culture ministry said in a statement that alarms linked to the windows of the Apollo Gallery went off when the thieves penetrated them in a "particularly fast and brutal break-in".
It said five museum guards present in the gallery and nearby spaces "immediately intervened to implement security protocol", prompting the thieves to flee. No one was hurt, it said.
A raid on France's top museum that saw thieves flee with royal jewels has raised awkward questions about how well the country's priceless cultural heritage is being protected.
How could robbers with power tools break in and steal crowns, sapphire and emerald necklaces? And how can a museum spanning 73,000 square metres and housing around 35,000 works of art be secured?
The government said authorities had already begun reviewing security at the vast Paris venue before the heist. Labour unions there have complained that security staff positions have been cut.
Here are some of the issues raised by Sunday's drama.
Security warning decades ago
The Louvre's then director Pierre Rosenberg warned that the museum's security was "fragile" after a painting by French master Camille Corot was stolen in broad daylight in 1998.
Taking over in 2021, its current director Laurence des Cars asked the Paris police to conduct a security audit of the museum.
Following this audit, recommendations were made "a few weeks, a few months ago", said Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Sunday after the raid.
Read moreThe Louvre heist: A look at other famous robberies in museums worldwide
They "are beginning to be implemented", she said, without elaborating.
Contacted by AFP, the Louvre did not comment.
The culture ministry said in a statement that alarms linked to the windows of the Apollo Gallery went off when the thieves penetrated them in a "particularly fast and brutal break-in".
It said five museum guards present in the gallery and nearby spaces "immediately intervened to implement security protocol", prompting the thieves to flee. No one was hurt, it said.
Security staff cuts
Labour unions said the museum's security had been undermined by staff reductions in recent years, even as museum attendance has soared.
One union source, who asked not to be named, said the equivalent of 200 full-time posts had been cut at the museum over the past 15 years, out of a total workforce of nearly 2,000.
"We cannot do without physical surveillance," the source said.
The SUD union, in a statement on Sunday, complained of "the destruction of security jobs" at the Louvre.
In mid-June, museum staff staged a brief walkout to protest "understaffing" issues they said prevented them from carrying out their duties.
"This robbery comes a few months after museum employees warned about security flaws," said a deputy mayor of Paris, David Belliard of the Green party.
"Why were they ignored by the museum management and the ministry?" he wrote on X.
Hundreds of millions for revamp
In response to warnings about the state of the Louvre, France's President Emmanuel Macron this year announced a colossal renovation project, estimated to cost up to $930 million.
It plans to install a new entrance to relieve congestion at the museum's landmark glass pyramid by 2031 and an exhibition hall dedicated to the Mona Lisa.
Read more Thieves steal 8 objects from the Louvre in daring daytime heist
Dati said on Sunday the renovation project featured a new "security master plan".
The culture ministry said Sunday that security measures would be "improved with new-generation cameras deployed".
The union source interviewed by AFP hoped that the amount spent "will be up to the protection required by our establishment".
Multiple museum thefts
The Louvre was just the latest French museum to be targeted. Just last month thieves broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris at night and stole six kilos of gold nuggets.
"Museums are increasingly targeted for the valuable works they hold," the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) told AFP earlier this month.
Gold objects "are particularly exposed, especially since the security of a museum does not equal that of a bank".
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According to the office's figures, museum burglaries peaked at 31 in 2015, with nine recorded in 2023 and 21 in 2024. There are 1,200 venues designated as national museums in France.
'Unsellable' treasures
Authorities and the art world speculated on Sunday about who the suspects were and where the stolen Louvre jewels may be headed.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on the radio that "a seasoned team" of thieves was suspected to be behind it, one that had "already committed other deeds of this nature".
The president of the leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine, Alexandre Giquello, said Sunday he found it "hard to believe" the Louvre jewels were stolen to order, judging the famous treasures "totally unsellable in their current state".
"In this operation, the most complicated part is not the theft, but the fencing," he told television channel LCI.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
French police hunt experienced, possibly ‘foreign’, Louvre heist team
French police continue its manhunt for the brazen team of robbers who stole eight “priceless” pieces of royal jewellery from Paris’s Louvre museum in broad daylight on Sunday. Some 60 investigators are currently working on the case. Officials say the thieves appear to have been experienced and are possibly “foreign” nationals.
Issued on: 20/10/2025
By: FRANCE 24
The whole raid took just seven minutes, officials say. © Dimitar Dilkoff, AFP
The hunt was on Monday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight.
Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.
In France, it reignited a row over the lack of security in the country's museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged Sunday was a "major weak spot".
The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40am (07:30 and 07:40 GMT) Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9:00am, a source close to the investigation said.
They used an extendable ladder to access the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.
A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels.
The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which — the crown of the Empress Eugénie — was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.
Seven-minute raid
Eight "priceless" items of jewellery were stolen, the culture ministry said Sunday. The list they released included an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise.
Also stolen was a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds; and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It has eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.
The whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly "foreigners", said Nuñez.
The intervention of the museum's staff forced the thieves to flee, leaving behind some of the equipment used in the raid, said the culture ministry in a statement.
The loot would be impossible to sell on in its current state, said the president of the leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine, Alexandre Giquello.
National 'humiliation'
It was the first theft from the Louvre since 1998, when a painting by Corot was stolen and never seen again.
Sunday's raid relaunched a debate over what critics said is the poor security at the nation's museums, far less secure than banks and increasingly targeted by thieves.
In an interview with French radio station France Inter, Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said the jewelry heist gave a very negative image of France because of its incapacity of protecting its museums.
"What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist (mechanical lift) in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels," he said.
Sunday's robbery sparked angry political reactions.
"How far will the disintegration of the state go?" said far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella on social media, calling the theft "an unbearable humiliation for our country".
President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that "everything is being done" to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
The hunt was on Monday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight.
Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.
In France, it reignited a row over the lack of security in the country's museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged Sunday was a "major weak spot".
The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40am (07:30 and 07:40 GMT) Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9:00am, a source close to the investigation said.
They used an extendable ladder to access the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.
A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels.
The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which — the crown of the Empress Eugénie — was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.
Seven-minute raid
Eight "priceless" items of jewellery were stolen, the culture ministry said Sunday. The list they released included an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise.
Also stolen was a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds; and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It has eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.
The whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly "foreigners", said Nuñez.
The intervention of the museum's staff forced the thieves to flee, leaving behind some of the equipment used in the raid, said the culture ministry in a statement.
The loot would be impossible to sell on in its current state, said the president of the leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine, Alexandre Giquello.
National 'humiliation'
It was the first theft from the Louvre since 1998, when a painting by Corot was stolen and never seen again.
Sunday's raid relaunched a debate over what critics said is the poor security at the nation's museums, far less secure than banks and increasingly targeted by thieves.
In an interview with French radio station France Inter, Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said the jewelry heist gave a very negative image of France because of its incapacity of protecting its museums.
"What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist (mechanical lift) in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels," he said.
Sunday's robbery sparked angry political reactions.
"How far will the disintegration of the state go?" said far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella on social media, calling the theft "an unbearable humiliation for our country".
President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that "everything is being done" to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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