PARIS, Oct. 20 — The Louvre Museum in Paris closed to the public on Sunday after a robbery in which nine items of great historical value were stolen, leaving visitors with pre-booked tickets feeling disappointed and shocked.
At around 09:30 local time Sunday, a gang of four burglars broke into the museum’s Apollo Gallery — home to the French Crown Jewels and other treasures — by smashing the gallery’s windows with angle grinders after hoisting themselves up from outside on a cherry picker.
Among the robbery’s targets were a sapphire necklace from the jewelry of Queen Marie Amelie and Queen Hortense and a tiara from Empress Eugenie. During their escape, the gang abandoned one of the nine stolen items, which was found damaged near the museum.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who visited the scene, described the stolen artifacts as being of “inestimable” heritage value. The Louvre and the Ministry of Culture are working to compile a detailed list of the stolen items and assess their value. Nunez said he was “hopeful” that the perpetrators, who fled on a scooter, would be apprehended “very quickly”. At present, the suspects are still at large.
“I am admonished that there was no people who work for the museum in the place. Normally, when you get inside, in each room, you have one person watching, but there was nobody this morning,” said Monica, a visitor.
“I find it strange because normally, as the lady said earlier, there’s a guard in the room. There should be a guard, an alarm, security, you know? And now it seems so easy. It happened right out in the open. I think it’s odd, and I believe there’s something we don’t know. There are things we don’t know,” said Adem, another visitor.
The Louvre’s management had previously warned of infrastructure problems affecting the preservation and security of its collections, pending a major renovation program.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati told the television network TF1 that “organized crime today targets works of art, and museums have become targets”.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the robbery on X, calling it “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history”. He said the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
The last recorded theft at the Louvre occurred in 1998, when a painting was stolen in broad daylight and has not been recovered. (CCTV)
