A gang of four thieves targeted the The Louvre in Paris on Sunday. In broad daylight at 9.30 local time, the group used a mechanical lift to access the gallery through first floor glass doors from the River Seine’s bankside.
Obviously well-rehearsed, their target was the Galerie d’Apollon, in which the jewels of the former French monarchy are housed.
Wearing fluorescent jackets, the thieves are said to have threatened the gallery guards before using small chainsaws to access glass display cases and escaping on scooters in all of four minutes. No one was injured.
Their diamond-encrusted haul, which French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described as of ‘incalculable’ value, featured nine items, including a brooch that once belonged to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, and a pair of emerald earrings. A tenth, Eugénie’s crown, was dropped on the way out and recovered, albeit damaged.
The Lourve was immediately evacuated and remains closed as of Monday.
The display cases in which the jewels were displayed were original to Napoleon’s time, the museum seemingly favouring historical accuracy over more modern reinforced glass.
A memo leaked to Le Parisien in January, museum director, Laurence des Cars, told the French minister of culture, Rachida Dati, that the museum infrastructure and architecture was in desperate need of an upgrade, warning against ‘the severe reality of the state of our overworked buildings,’ of which some ‘are in a very poor condition’.
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