Intensive Search Underway Following Art Heist at Paris's Louvre Museum

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Thieves in balaclavas broke into the Louvre museum in Paris, using a crane to smash an upstairs window, then stole priceless objects from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes, officials said.

The robbery on Sunday raises awkward questions about security at the museum, where officials had already sounded the alarm about lack of investment at a world-famous site, home to artworks such as the Mona Lisa, that welcomed 8.7 million visitors in 2024.

“The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our History,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X.

“We will recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”

At approximately 9:30 a.m. local time, a daring robbery unfolded at the renowned Galerie d’Apollon in Paris, shortly after the museum had welcomed its first visitors of the day. Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, detailed the incident during an interview with BFM TV.

In response to the theft, the museum temporarily closed its doors as French authorities launched an investigation into the brazen crime.

The heist, which lasted only six to seven minutes, was executed by a group of four individuals who, though unarmed, menaced the security personnel with angle grinders, Beccuau reported.

Alexandre Giquello, president of the Drouot auction house, remarked on the heist’s audacity, stating, “The crown alone is valued at several tens of millions of euros, yet it might not even be the most significant piece taken.”

Beccuau said it was a mystery why the thieves did not steal the Regent diamond, which is housed in the Galerie d’Apollon and is estimated to be worth more than $92 million by Sotheby’s.

“I don’t have an explanation,” she said.

“It’ll only be when they’re in custody and face investigators that we’ll know what type of order they had and why they didn’t target that window.”

Beccuau said one of the thieves was wearing a yellow reflective vest, which investigators have since recovered. She added that the robbers tried and failed to set fire to the crane, mounted on the back of a small truck, as they fled.

Interior minister Laurent Nunez said the probe had been entrusted to a specialised police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies.

Prosecutor Beccuau emphasized that investigators are exploring all possible avenues to resolve the case.

But she said it was likely the robbery was either commissioned by a collector, in which case there was a chance of recovering the pieces in a good state, or undertaken by thieves interested only in the valuable jewels and precious metals. She said foreign interference was not among the main hypotheses.

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, said on X it would remain closed for the day for “exceptional reasons”.

The Mona Lisa was stolen from the museum in 1911 in one of the most daring art thefts in history, in a heist involving a former employee. He was eventually caught and the painting was returned to the museum two years later.

Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum’s ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art.