PARIS — The robbery moved through quiet hallways with speed and ease that would humiliate a nation. Officials are now in a race against their own time.
In just seven minutes in the casual sunshine of a Sunday morning, four suspects stole nine French treasures from the Louvre. They robbed not only the world’s most visited museum, but also the French people themselves, the government announced on Monday.
Authorities are now scrambling to reassure the public about the safety of major cultural institutions. And they’re trying to find the jewels stolen from the museum before they fall apart and melt.
The thieves used montmeuvres (trucks equipped with basket lifts), which were often used to hoist furniture into inaccessible apartment buildings in Paris.
Officials said they parked it outside the vast Renaissance palace, climbed onto a balcony outside the Galeries d’Apollon and slashed through the windows with knives.
Their daring robbery also shattered the nation’s self-image.
Officials said the unarmed robbers, who threatened museum staff with angle grinders, broke through two display cases and stole necklaces, tiaras and brooches from visiting French royals.
All this happened shortly after the museum opened, and witnesses were able to capture video footage of a suspect wearing a high-visibility vest standing in one of the glass boxes containing historical treasures.
Investigators say they wonder why the suspects left behind the giant 140-carat Regent Diamond, which is worth $60 million. If they had wandered through those opulent hallways, they would have arrived at the Mona Lisa – itself infamously stolen over a century ago.
Officials said they fled on two scooters, but not before dropping two items, including the crown of Empress Eugenie, the 19th-century empress of Napoleon III, which was found broken near the scene.
Alexandre Zichello, president of France’s leading Drouot auction house, told Reuters the items alone were “worth tens of millions of euros.” “And in my opinion, that’s not the most important item stolen by the robbers.”
Some experts say thieves will likely try to melt down the metal and smash the emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and pearls because the items are unique and cannot be sold. That means investigators could have less than a week before the jewelry is gone forever.
The incident forced the Louvre to be closed on Sunday and again on Monday morning, and a bewildered crowd was evacuated from the area shortly after the attackers struck.
For a country whose character is defined by the proud display of its history and culture, the incident is seen by some quarters as a national humiliation.
President Emmanuel Macron called it “an attack on the heritage we cherish because it is our history.” “The works will be recovered and the perpetrators brought to justice,” he vowed, adding: “Everything is being done everywhere to achieve this.”
The culture and interior ministries held an emergency meeting on Monday and agreed to ask senior officials across France to “immediately assess the existing security measures already in place around cultural institutions and strengthen them if necessary,” the interior ministry said, according to Reuters.
Gerard Darmanin, Macron’s justice minister, said the robbery gave France a “negative” and “deplorable” image. “What is certain is that we failed,” he told France Inter radio station. “All French people feel like they’ve been robbed.”
Far-right leader Jourdan Bardera, one of Macron’s main political opponents and a favorite to replace Macron in the next presidential election in 2027, denounced the crime as another example of the “collapse of the state” under Macron’s government and an “unbearable humiliation for our country.”
This is not the first time the Louvre has been targeted by thieves.
In 1911, a museum decorator named Vincenzo Perugia stole the Mona Lisa. Recently, there has been a spate of thefts at French museums, including the theft of gold from the National Museum of Natural History and the theft of approximately $11 million worth of porcelain from the Adrien Dubouche Museum in Limoges last month.
After the theft at the Louvre, trade union SUD Culture denounced the “destruction of specialized security jobs” and the lack of funding for security equipment.
This suggests widespread anxiety within France.
Mr Macron has seen several governments collapse as he tries to thwart the rise of Mr Bardera’s National Rally. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest public spending cuts.
Now authorities are facing a new crisis.
Paris prosecutor Laure Becuaux told BFM television that if the robbery was at the request of a collector, the items could be returned to their original condition.
But if that’s not the case, well-known Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told Sky News that police have “a week” before the jewelry is gone forever.
“These crown jewels are too famous to sell,” he said. “The only thing they can do is try to melt down the silver and gold, dismantle the diamond, and cut it up. Then it will probably be gone forever.”
“It’s a race against time.”
Molly Hunter and Mo Abbas reported from Paris and Alexander Smith from London.
