A broad daylight robbery at Paris’s iconic Louvre Museum on Sunday has raised concerns over the lack of security in France’s museums. The heist, which saw eight priceless royal artifacts stolen, was captured on video, showing one of the thieves cutting through a glass display case.
The clip, shared by France’s BFMTV, shows the suspect cutting through the display case while visitors walked by casually.
‘Like a Hollywood movie’, a 7-minute robbery
It was “like a Hollywood movie”, an American tourist was quoted as saying by the AFP, as she described the “crazy” robbery. Four thieves were reportedly behind the robbery and it took them just seven minutes to grab some of France’s priceless crown jewels.
They arrived at the museum around 40 minutes after it opened, and entered the Apollo Gallery, which houses French crown jewels, using a furniture hoist.
According to a French cultural ministry statement: “Two high-security display cases were targeted, and eight objects of priceless cultural heritage were stolen”.
The thieves used angle grinders to break the glass cases and had also threatened museum guards with them, Paris’s chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau told BFMTV.
An experienced team, possibly “foreigners”, were behind the targeting, as per Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who also acknowledged that museum security was a “weak spot” in France.
What was stolen and what was left behind
The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, houses treasures including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
According to Bloomberg, the stolen jewels included: a sapphire diadem, necklace, and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie’s diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
While the thieves managed to catch hold of eight royal jewels, the crown of the Empress Eugenie was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.
This Louvre heist comes after over 37 years the museum saw a robbery. Before this, a painting by Corot was stolen from the museum back in 1988.
