In a daring heist that unfolded in mere minutes, thieves targeted the world-renowned Louvre Museum in Paris, making off with jewels of untold value. The audacious robbery occurred on a Sunday morning, while visitors were already exploring the museum, according to France’s Interior Minister.

The Louvre, famous for being the most visited museum globally, had to be closed for the rest of the day. Authorities swiftly sealed the museum’s entrances and guided visitors out as investigators began their work.

“A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati announced on social media platform X. The museum cited “exceptional reasons” for its closure, fortunately reporting no injuries from the incident.

Details from the Interior Ministry reveal that around 9:30 a.m., a group of intruders used a basket lift to gain access through a window. They swiftly smashed display cases, seized the precious jewels, and made their escape on motorbikes. The ministry is currently conducting forensic investigations and compiling a detailed inventory of the stolen items, which hold immense historical significance.

Video footage captured the scene as bewildered tourists were escorted out of the iconic glass pyramid and its surrounding courtyards. Police quickly secured the area by closing the iron gates and blocking nearby streets along the Seine River.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the event as a “major robbery,” explaining on France Inter radio that the thieves entered from outside using a basket lift. The heist, which lasted just seven minutes, involved the use of a disc cutter to breach the display cases. Nuñez suggested that the operation was carried out by a team that had meticulously planned the theft in advance.

The heist occurred in the Galerie d’Apollon, 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, according to the ministry.

French daily Le Parisien reported the thieves entered via the Seine-facing facade, where construction is underway, and used a freight elevator to reach the gallery. After breaking windows, they reportedly took nine pieces from the jewelry collection of Napoleon and the Empress. 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.

Security and staffing at the Louvre in the spotlight

Security around the marquee works remains tight. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass and a custom high-tech display system as part of broader anti-theft measures across the museum.

Staffing and protection have been flashpoints at the Louvre. The museum delayed opening during a June staff walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions have warned that mass tourism strains security and visitor management.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether staffing levels played any role in Sunday’s theft.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron announced a decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan – roughly 700 million to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding, and give the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece its own dedicated gallery by 2031 – but workers say relief has been slow to reach the floor.

Other European museums have been robbed

The theft, less than half an hour after doors opened, echoes other recent European museum raids.

In 2019, thieves smashed vitrines in Dresden’s Green Vault and carried off diamond-studded royal jewels worth hundreds of millions of euros. 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 Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous came 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 museum can draw up to 30,000 visitors a day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.