One of the suspected thieves who launched a jaw-dropping heist on the Louvre has been filmed wearing a hi-viz vest as they appear to break into a glass cabinet and raid priceless jewellery that once belonged to Napoleon and his family.
A gang of several ‘highly organised criminals’ arrived outside the world’s most visited museum at around 9.30am local time on Sunday while thousands of tourists enjoyed a day out in Paris.
Masked and wielding angle grinders, they launched an audacious raid which saw them swipe nine of the museum’s most priceless treasures including a £100million crown – all in the space of just seven minutes.
Images broadcast by French TV outlet BFM shows one of the gang seemingly masquerading as a construction worker, wearing a yellow hi-viz vest as he brazenly prises open a cabinet.
The group targeted a wing of the Louvre by the Seine River, where construction work was ongoing, and extended a freight elevator resembling a ladder from the back of a flat-bed truck before propping it up against the wall of the gallery.
After scurrying to the top of the ladder, they then used an angle grinder to pierce through the museum’s external window, before climbing into the Salle 705 exhibition room.
In the whirlwind heist, the group hurriedly prised open two display cases and crammed away nine pieces of the 23-item Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection, according to local reports.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said two of the nine pieces stolen were recovered soon after the gang fled the scene, after apparently being dropped and damaged.
One of the suspected thieves who launched a jaw-dropping heist on the Louvre has been filmed wearing a hi-viz vest as they appear to break into a glass cabinet
The suspected thief was filmed as the group raided priceless jewellery that once belonged to Napoleon and his family
Among the treasures was the Eugénie Crown, found tossed below a window of the Louvre and broken into pieces (Stock Photo)
The Louvre, nestled in the heart of the French capital and far and away the most visited art museum in the world, was quickly put into lockdown as politicians and detectives descended on the scene of the crime.
Mr Nuñez said two thieves arrived on Yamaha Tmax scooters, while two others were waiting on the back of a flat-bed truck with an extendable ladder.
‘The window was cut through, using a hand-held disc cutter,’ he said, adding that the group even used a chainsaw to get into display cabinets.
France’s culture ministry said an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise, was among the ‘objects of invaluable cultural heritage’ that were stolen in the raid.
Created by King Louis XIV – who identified himself with the sun god, Apollo – the ornate Galerie d’Apollon is home to numerous priceless jewels.
Among them is the Eugénie Crown, which was found broken and discarded by the thieves below the Louvre window.
Made in 1855, the Second Empire piece is adorned with thousands of diamonds and emeralds. It is named after Eugénie de Montijo, who became Empress of the French following her marriage to Napoleon III in 1853.
Napoleon III’s father was Louis Bonarparte, the younger brother of the more famous Napoleon I, or Napoleon Bonaparte.
After being crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804, Napoleon and Josephine amassed one of the most sumptuous jewellery collections ever.
Several ‘highly organised criminals’ arrived outside the Louvre at around 9.30am local time on Sunday and propped a freight elevator against its walls before completing a seven-minute raid
Officers rushed to the scene and were pictured inspecting the empty site after a mass evacuation
Many of the pieces were stolen from Royalty during the French Revolution, while others were amassed from around the Empire.
Mr Nunez confirmed that an investigation had been launched into ‘theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime,’ by a ‘highy organised criminal gang’.
Beyond Eugénie’s Crown, items stolen included another crown, earrings and a brooch.
The ‘Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police (BRB)’ is leading the enquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Mr Nuñez said: ‘It was necessary to close the Louvre to visitors, primarily to preserve traces and clues so that investigators could work calmly. The evacuation of the public took place without incident.’
Mr Nuñez added: ‘We can’t prevent everything. There is great vulnerability in French museums. Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and I’m hopeful.’
He said CCTV footage was being studied, and ‘it’s not impossible that the perpetrators are foreigners, adding: ‘The gang was experienced and had obviously been watching the site before the operation.’
One of the mopeds used by the criminals was later found abandoned in a nearby street.
Rachida Dati, France’s Culture Minister, said: ‘I am on site alongside the museum staff and the police.’
She said nobody was hurt during the raids, while a Louvre spokesman confirmed the museum was shut ‘for exceptional reasons.’
Police gather on the Louvre Pyramid spiral staircase after the theft of Napoleon collection jewellery pieces at the museum
A member of a forensic team inspects a window believed to have been used in what the French Interior Ministry said was a robbery at the Louvre museum
Images appear to show a disc-cutter in a lorry at the site of the robbery, believed to have been used to cut through the musuem’s external window
Forensics teams inspect a window to the Apollo Gallery, believed to have been pierced by a disc cutter
Tourists pictured being escorted from the Louvre on Sunday after thieves arrived on scooters to swipe priceless historical items in an audacious heist
Forensics teams pictured outside the Louvre in the hours after the heist
The most infamous theft at the Louvre came in 1911 when Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th Century Mona Lisa was taken, causing an international outcry.
Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world’s most visited art museum, hid in a cupboard overnight to take the painting. It was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.
The latest raid comes despite the authorities regularly pledging to improve security at the numerous galleries across Paris.
Axe-wielding thieves targeted an exhibition of miniature objects at the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris on November 20, 2024. Among their haul were seven highly prized snuffboxes, including two loaned by the British Crown.
The daytime raid led to an insurance payout of more than £3million to the Royal Collection Trust.
In 2017, three art thieves were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for stealing five masterpieces worth almost £100million from the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
A burglary in May 2010 also saw works by Picasso and Matisse disappearing.
The Louvre welcomed nearly nine million visitors in 2024, 80 per cent of whom were foreigners, including hundreds of thousands of people from the UK.
Those stealing historical art pieces are often working to the orders of dealers who will be unable to sell on the black market.
Instead, the jewellery will be kept hidden, and enjoyed by the master criminal who commissioned the raid.
