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By Emma De Ruiter
19/10/2025
France's Interior Ministry said that around 9:30am several intruders forced open a window, stole jewels from vitrines and fled on two-wheelers.
France's world-famous Louvre museum in Paris was forced to close on Sunday after thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery and stole valuable crown jewels.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the thieves used a basket lift to access the room directly, forced a window and broke display cases to steal the jewels, before escaping on two-wheelers.
He said forensic work is underway and a precise inventory of the stolen objects is being compiled, adding that the items have “inestimable” historical value.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote on social media there were "no injuries to report," adding "I am on site alongside the museum teams and the police. Investigations under way."
In a post on X the Louvre confirmed it will be closed "for exceptional reasons".
The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory, in what Dati described as a professional “four-minute operation.”
Officials said nine pieces were stolen from the Napoleon and the Empress's jewellery collection in the Apollo Gallery, including a necklace, a brooch, a tiara and more.
One object was later found outside the museum, Dati said. French media identified it as the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds. It was reportedly recovered broken.
The Apollo Gallery is a vaulted hall in the Denon wing that displays part of the French Crown Jewels beneath a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist.
One stolen jewel was later found outside the museum, the paper reported, adding that the item was believed to be Empress Eugénie’s crown and that it had been broken.
One witness, Kaci Benedetti, described in a post on X scenes of panic inside the museum as people tried to exit when police arrived.
The Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence — an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.
In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armor were stolen from the Louvre and only recovered nearly four decades later. The museum’s collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting that continues to spark restitution debates today.
The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting — from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters. Its star attractions include the Mona Lisa, as well as the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Thieves steal eight objects from the Louvre
in daring daytime heist
A four man "strike team" broke into the Louvre in the heart of Paris on Sunday and robbed eight objects from the Gallerie d'Apollon, including historical jewellery, as the world-renowned museum closed for the day. French authorities later said they recovered one item, which was apparently dropped by the robbers as they made their escape.
Issued on: 19/10/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Shirli SITBON
03:32
Robbers wielding power tools broke into the Louvre on Sunday and made off with priceless jewels from the world-renowned museum, taking just seven minutes for the broad-daylight heist, sources and officials said.
"A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum," French Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Sunday wrote on X. The Louvre said it was closing for the day "for exceptional reasons".
The thieves made off with eight priceless objects, with a ninth that they tried to steal recovered at the scene, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
They did not target or steal the world-famous Regent diamond, which is housed in the same gallery the thieves hit, Beccuau said on BFM TV. Sotheby's estimates the Regent is worth over $60 million.
French authorities are hunting the four man "strike team", Paris's chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau, told BFMTV television.
15:52
There were no injuries reported. Dati said she was at the museum and investigations were underway.
"We saw some footage: they don't target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave. No violence, very professional," she said on TF1.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised that the thieves who raided the Louvre in Paris Sunday morning would be caught and the items they stole recovered.
"Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this, under the leadership of the Paris prosecutor's office," he said in a statement on social media.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the “major robbery” said the thieves used a crane that was positioned on a truck to enter the building. They stole jewels of “priceless value”.
It was “manifestly a team that had done scouting”, he said, adding that the panes were cut “with a disc cutter”.
The interior ministry specified the location as the Galerie d’Apollon.
Daring heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris
04:11
What jewels did the Louvre thieves steal?
The Culture Ministry said eight pieces were stolen.
These included the tiara, necklace and an earring, part of a pair, from the jewellery set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense.
An emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from the Marie-Louise set were also stolen, as was the brooch known as the reliquary brooch, the tiara of Empress Eugénie as well as the large bodice knot (brooch).
One piece of jewellery had been recovered outside the museum, apparently dropped as they made their escape.
French authorities confirmed they found the 19th-century crown that once belonging to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III. The crown features golden eagles and is covered in 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, according to the museum's website.
What is the Gallerie d'Apollon?
In 1661, after a fire broke out at the Louvre, Louis XIV entrusted architect Louis Le Vau to create a gallery reflecting his new emblem, the sun. Le Vau modelled the space on Apollo, the Greek god of the sun.
The resulting hall, an ornate space of gold leaf and paintings, would be the model for the Palace of Versailles' world-famous Hall of Mirrors, finished 20 years later after Louis XIV left Paris for Versailles.
Visitors evacuated
Police sealed off the museum and evacuated visitors. New arrivals were turned away and nearby streets were closed, according to the interior ministry.
A police source said the robbers had drawn up on a scooter armed with angle grinders and used the hoist -- an extendible ladder used to move furniture -- to reach the room they were targeting.
The brazen robbery happened just 800 metres from Paris police headquarters.
Louvre museum authorities could not immediately be reached for comment, according to French media reports.
But the Louvre confirmed that the museum was closed Sunday due to “exceptional reasons”, in a post on X.
According to French daily, Le Parisien, the criminals entered the sprawling building from the facade facing the Seine River, where construction work is underway.
After breaking the windows, they reportedly stole "nine pieces from the jewellery collection of Napoleon and the Empress", said the report.
Echoes other recent break-ins
The theft, which occured less than half an hour after doors opened, echoes other recent museum raids.
Daylight robberies during public hours are rare. Pulling one off inside the Louvre — with visitors present — ranks among Europe’s most audacious since Dresden’s Green Vault museum in 2019, where which thieves smashed vitrines and carried off diamond-studded royal jewels worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Last month, criminals used an angle grinder to break into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth 600,000 euros ($700,000).
In November last year, four thieves stole snuffboxes and other precious artifacts from the Cognacq-Jay museum in Paris, breaking into a display case with axes and baseball bats.
French President Emmanuel Macron in January pledged the Louvre would be "redesigned, restored and enlarged" after its director voiced alarm about dire conditions inside.
He said at the time he hoped that the works could help increase the annual number of visitors to 12 million.
In 2017, burglars at Berlin’s Bode Museum stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid-gold coin. In 2010, a lone intruder slipped into Paris’s Museum of Modern Art and escaped with five paintings, including a Picasso.
The robbery is likely to raise awkward questions about security at the museum, where officials had already sounded the alarm about lack of investment at a world-famous site that welcomed 8.7 million visitors in 2024.
The Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence – an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.
Home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting – from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters – the Louvre’s star attractions include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The Galerie d’Apollon displays a selection of the French Crown Jewels.
The museum can draw up to 30,000 visitors a day.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
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