PARIS (AP) — Thieves entered the Louvre using a lifting platform on Sunday morning and, while tourists were already inside, forced a window, broke display cases and fled with jewelry of “incalculable value,” France’s Interior Minister said.
The world’s most visited museum closed for the rest of the day as police sealed the doors and evacuated visitors during the investigation.
“Early this morning a robbery occurred at the opening of the Louvre Museum,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote in X. The museum cited “exceptional reasons” for the closure. No injuries were reported.
Around 9:30 am several intruders forced a window, stole jewelry from display cases and escaped on two-wheeled vehicles, according to the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Laurent Nuñez. Forensic work is being carried out and an accurate inventory of the stolen items is being compiled, adding that the items have “inestimable” historical value. Dati and Nuñez were on site along with the museum management.
Video from the scene showed confused tourists being evacuated from the glass pyramid and surrounding courtyards as officials closed the iron gates and closed off streets near the Seine.
Nuñez called it a “major theft,” saying the intruders entered from the outside using a lifting platform. He explained to France Inter that the robbery lasted seven minutes and that the thieves used a disc cutter to cut the glass. He said it was “clearly a team that had done prior reconnaissance.”
The theft occurred in the Apollo Gallery, a vaulted hall in the Denon wing that displays part of the French crown jewels under a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist, according to the ministry.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that the criminals entered through the facade facing the Seine, where construction is taking place, and used a lifting basket to gain direct access to the target room in the Apollo Gallery. After breaking windows, they allegedly stole “nine pieces from Napoleon and the Empress’s jewelry collection.” Le Parisien also reported that one of the stolen jewels was later found outside the museum, adding that it was believed to be Empress Eugenie’s crown and had been broken.
Louvre security and staff are in the crosshairs
Security around the most notable works remains tight. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass and a high-tech display system as part of wider anti-theft measures across the museum.
Staffing and security have been points of conflict at the Louvre. The museum delayed its opening during a staff strike in June over overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions have warned that mass tourism puts security and visitor management to the test.
It was not immediately clear if staffing levels played any role in Sunday’s robbery.
In January, President Emmanuel Macron announced a decade-long “New Louvre Renaissance” plan—roughly €700 million to modernize infrastructure, relieve overcrowding and give Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece its own dedicated gallery by 2031—but workers say relief has been slow to hit the ground floor.
The robbery, less than half an hour after the doors opened, is reminiscent of other recent assaults on European museums.
In 2019, thieves smashed display cases in Dresden’s Green Vault and made off with diamond-encrusted royal jewels worth hundreds of millions of euros. In 2017, thieves at Berlin’s Bode Museum stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid gold coin. In 2010, a lone intruder slipped into the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and escaped with five paintings, including a Picasso.
The Louvre has a long history of break-ins and attempted break-ins. The most famous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and emerged 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 best-known work of art in the world.
The Louvre houses more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting, from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters. Its main attractions include the Mona Lisa, as well as the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The museum can attract up to 30,000 visitors a day.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
This article was published by Thomas Adamson on 2025-10-19 05:52:00
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