How thieves carried out daring Louvre daylight heist of $100 million Napoleonic jewels

The Louvre Museum in Paris reopened Wednesday to long visitor lines—just three days after an audacious daylight robbery stunned the world’s most visited art institution. The Apollo Gallery, home to France’s historic Crown Jewels, remains sealed off as investigators probe how thieves stole eight Napoleonic-era pieces valued at around $100 million.

According to French daily Le Parisien, four masked individuals used nearby construction scaffolding to access the museum’s Seine-facing facade on Sunday morning. The group reportedly arrived around 9:30 a.m.—shortly after opening—and used a cherry picker to reach the gallery directly. Surveillance footage reviewed by authorities shows the robbers calmly entering, smashing glass cases, and escaping within four minutes.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the operation as “highly organized,” noting that the team used a disc cutter to breach display glass. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin later acknowledged “serious failures” in museum security, stating that the installation of a freight lift outside the Louvre without detection “shows our systems must be reassessed.”

After seizing emerald- and sapphire-encrusted diadems, necklaces, and brooches once belonging to Napoleon’s wives and other 19th-century royals, the suspects fled on two Yamaha TMax scooters toward a nearby highway, Le Parisien reported. Authorities have since located one of the motorcycles involved.

One piece—the Crown of Empress Eugénie—was later recovered, damaged, near the museum grounds, according to Le Parisien. Alexandre Giquello, president of the Drouot auction house, told Reuters that the crown alone is worth “several tens of millions of euros” and emphasized that the stolen jewels are “completely unsellable.”

President Emmanuel Macron condemned the heist as “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history,” pledging to recover the artifacts and hold those responsible accountable. Louvre director Laurence des Cars and Culture Minister Rachida Dati have also ordered a full review of museum security.

The incident follows months of staffing concerns at the Louvre. Unions previously warned of “too few eyes on too many rooms,” leading to a staff strike earlier this year over crowding and under-resourcing.

The robbery has drawn comparisons to past heists at the museum, including the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa by a former employee—a crime that ironically helped elevate the painting to global fame. More recently, pieces of 16th-century Italian armor stolen in 1983 were recovered in 2021, and the 1976 theft of a diamond-studded coronation sword remains unsolved.

Authorities continue to analyze security footage and forensic evidence recovered from the scene, including the thieves’ attempted torching of the cherry picker, which was interrupted by guards. A national review of museum security protocols across France is now underway.