It could have been a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster movie, with thieves carrying out a brazen raid on the world’s most-visited museum in broad daylight and escaping with eight pieces of a country’s crown jewels, but unfortunately for France this was very real.

Four masked men used a vehicle-mounted ladder which they positioned to lead up to a first-floor balcony to gain access to the Louvre in Paris at around 9.30am and just 30 minutes after the famous tourist attraction opened to the general public.

In what is being described as a “professional” heist, the entire robbery was undertaken and the perpetrators made their get-away in just seven minutes, racing away on motor scooters and causing huge embarrassment to the French authorities at the ease of the crime and highlighting an obvious vulnerability at the museum.

There is a strong belief amongst experts that unless they are apprehended within the next 48-72 hours, the priceless items – which included a diamond and emerald necklace that Emperor Napoleon presented to his wife, Empress Marie Louise – will be broken up, recut, or melted down and smuggled out of the country.

An investigation is under way, seeking to determine how criminals were able to breach supposedly one of the most secure cultural sites in Europe. It is the most spectacular theft at the Louvre since the Mona Lisa disappeared way back in 1911.

No interest in the famous paintings

The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world and attracts up to 30,000 visitors on a daily basis to view its thousands of world-famous art pieces, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. 

However, those are not of any real interest to criminal groups as they are almost impossible to move on. Instead they prefer items that can be converted into hard cash, hence the targetting of the jewels.

Carefully planned 

It is understood that four men pulled up on scooters at the side of the Apollo Gallery where the crown jewels are housed, facing across the River Seine. They wore yellow and orange vests to disguise themselves as workmen to buy some valuable minutes and climbed onto a truck equipped with an elevating platform of the type used by removal companies.

Two of them proceeded to cut through glass panes with a battery-powered angle grinder and gain entry. They knew exactly what they were after, targetting specifically two display-cases which contain what remained of the French crown jewels. 

Immeasurable value

France’s ministry of culture said the stolen items were: a tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from Empress Marie Louise; a tiara, necklace and single earring from the sapphire set that belonged to Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense and a brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”.

Between them, they are adorned with thousands of diamonds and other precious gemstones.  Two more items, including Empress Eugénie’s crown, were found near the scene, apparently having been dropped during the escape. Authorities described the stolen jewels as “priceless” and of “immeasurable heritage value”.

President’s comment

France’s president Emmanuel Macron described the robbery as an “attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history”, but embarrassingly, French media is reporting that a preliminary assessment by the Court of Auditors (due to be published next month) found that a third of the rooms in the wing where the robbery took place have no working surveillance cameras. 

This despite the Louvre’s collection being estimated to be worth tens of billions of euros.

Most daring since Mona Lisa

Before this remarkable robbery, the most well-known theft at the museum was when Leonardo da Vinci’s La Joconde – better known now as the Mona Lisa – was taken in 1911. Back then the culprit had hidden himself in a closet overnight, after which he was able to simply remove the painting from its frame, wrap it up in his smock, tuck it under his arm and audaciously walk out of the building. 

It transpired that the man was an Italian national who believed the artwork should be brought back to where he felt it belonged. It was eventually found in Italy in 1914 and returned to the Louvre.