Thieves stole Napoleon-era jewels from the world’s most-visited museum, The Louvre, located in Paris, on Sunday, and after the heist, the museum was suddenly closed.
As per media reports, it was a rapid, seven-minute heist. The thieves used a basket lift to access the building, smashed a window with a grinder, and broke display cases in the Apollo Gallery to steal priceless 19th-century jewelry.
Stolen items:
Stolen items included the diadem, necklace, and earring from the parure of Marie Amélie and Hortense de Beauharnais; the emerald necklace and a pair of earrings from the Empress Marie Louise parure; the “Reliquary” brooch; the large corsage bow of Empress Eugénie; and the Empress Eugénie crown. The total number of stolen items is eight.
How did it happen?
According to police reports, the incident occurred during a highly professional daylight heist. At around 9:30 a.m., half an hour after the Louvre opened to visitors, four masked thieves wearing balaclavas arrived in a truck on the road running alongside the Seine. Positioned on the museum’s south side, the vehicle was equipped with a basket lift and an extendable ladder, which they used to reach a second-floor balcony window. There, they forced entry using an angle grinder and other power tools, police said.
When alarms rang out in the museum alerting guards, the robbers quickly left, escaping on motorbikes. The entire caper took only seven minutes.
