Thieves Stage Daring Daylight Heist at the Louvre, Stealing Priceless Crown Jewels

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — In a dramatic daylight robbery that stunned France, thieves armed with power tools broke into the Louvre Museum on Sunday and made off with priceless crown jewels in a heist lasting just seven minutes, officials said.

The culprits, believed to be a group of three or four, used an extendable furniture hoist to access the museum’s famed Galerie d’Apollon, home to France’s crown jewels. They struck between 9:30 and 9:40 a.m., shortly after the museum opened to the public.

Authorities later recovered the 19th-century crown of Empress Eugénie — encrusted with over 1,300 diamonds and 56 emeralds — damaged and discarded near the museum. The remaining stolen items and the suspects’ whereabouts remain unknown, prompting a large-scale manhunt.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the stolen artifacts as “priceless,” saying the thieves used angle grinders and other tools to breach two display cases before escaping on scooters. “It was over in minutes,” one eyewitness told local media, adding that the scene looked “like a Hollywood movie.”

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and home to the Mona Lisa, was evacuated and closed for the day “to preserve traces and clues for the investigation,” museum management said. Armed soldiers patrolled the glass pyramid entrance as police combed the area, just 800 meters from Paris police headquarters.

The robbery is the latest in a troubling series of museum thefts across France. Last month, burglars stole gold samples worth €600,000 from the Natural History Museum, while earlier this year, thieves in Limoges made off with Chinese porcelain treasures valued at €6.5 million.

The Louvre, once the palace of French kings, has suffered major thefts before — most famously the 1911 disappearance of the Mona Lisa, which was recovered months later.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to renovate and expand the Louvre to improve security and the visitor experience, aiming to raise annual attendance to 12 million.

Police say the investigation into Sunday’s heist is ongoing.