 "French police officers stand in front of the Louvre Museum after robbery, in Paris on October 19. Robbers broke in to the Louvre and fled with jewellery. AFP")
It was almost like a scene from a movie. But, unfortunately it wasn’t reel life, but real life when thieves raided Paris’s Louvre museum in broad daylight Sunday (October 19), taking just seven minutes to grab some of France’s priceless crown jewels, but dropping a gem-encrusted crown as they fled.
The spectacular heist , one of several to target French museums in recent months, forced the closure of the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and home to the Mona Lisa.
A day after the headline-grabbing heist, the hunt is still on for the band of thieves. Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.
As we await for authorities to nab the thieves, here’s all that we know.
How did the thieves break into the Louvre?
Shortly after the Louvre museum opened to the public at 9 am, four balaclava-clad thieves pulled up outside the Louvre on a road along the Seine river. Around 9.30 am, the thieves using a furniture hoist and cutting equipment made their way into the Apollo Gallery (Galerie d’Apollon), home to the royal collection.
Pictures from the scene showed a vehicle-mounted ladder leading up to a first-floor window.
As per a BBC report, they then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and stole items from two glass display cases. As per France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, the entire raid took less than 10 minutes.
Witness Samir, who was riding a bicycle nearby at the time, told the TF1 channel that he saw two men “get on the hoist, break the window and enter… it took 30 seconds”.
He saw four of them leave on scooters and called the police.
One American tourist, Talia Ocampo, told AFP, “It was like a Hollywood movie. It was crazy and something we won’t forget — we could not go to the Louvre because there was a robbery.”
French President Emmanuel Macron reacted to the robbery on X, he wrote “The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history. We will recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
What jewels have been stolen?
According to the authorities, eight items were taken, including diadems, necklaces, earrings and brooches. All are from the 19th century, and once belonged to French royalty or imperial rulers.
Among the stolen items are:
>> 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.
>> A brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”.
Between them, these pieces are adorned with thousands of diamonds and other precious gemstones.
Fortunately, the thieves missed out on the hugely valuable crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, which they thieves dropped on their way out. They also missed the Regent diamond, valued by Sotheby’s at more than $60 million, which was also in the gallery.
Anthony Amore, an art theft expert and co-author of the book Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists, told Al Jazeera the items contained in the collection were priceless “not just in terms of dollars, but in terms of cultural patrimony”.
Have such thefts taken place at the Louvre before?
Thefts at the Louvre have been rare. A painting by French painter Camille Corot disappeared from the museum in 1998 and has never been recovered.
In 1911, an Italian worker at the museum stole the Mona Lisa by hiding it under his coat. It was recovered after two years. The culprit later revealed that his motivation was that the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece belonged in Italy.
With inputs from agencies