People queue in the Louvre pyramid courtyard moments before the announcement the museum will remain closed for a second day running after thieves stole crown jewels from the museum in Paris a day earlier. Photo / Julien De Rosa, AFP
People queue in the Louvre pyramid courtyard moments before the announcement the museum will remain closed for a second day running after thieves stole crown jewels from the museum in Paris a day earlier. Photo / Julien De Rosa, AFP
The loot stolen from the Louvre during the weekend heist is valued at more than US$100 million, a French prosecutor has said, as scrutiny mounts over security at the country’s cultural institutions.
Thieves made off with priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a brazen daylight robbery that lastedjust seven minutes.
“The Louvre curator estimated the damages to be €88m [$174.1m]," said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, calling it an “extraordinary” sum.
But she said the greater loss was to France’s historical heritage, adding that the thieves would not pocket the full windfall if they had “the very bad idea of melting down these jewels”.
The theft is the latest from French museums in recent months, and authorities are scrambling to increase protection measures.
In a separate case, a prosecutor said that a Chinese woman had been charged over the theft of more than US$1m worth of gold nuggets from another Paris museum last month.
Scores of investigators were still looking for the culprits of the Louvre heist, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.
Beccuau confirmed that four people were involved in Sunday’s robbery and said authorities were analysing fingerprints found at the scene.
Detectives were scouring video camera footage from around the Louvre as well as of main highways out of Paris for signs of the four robbers, who escaped on scooters.
‘Worrying level of obsolescence’
People queue in the Louvre pyramid courtyard moments before the announcement the museum will remain closed for a second day running after Sunday's theft. Photo / Julien De Rosa, AFP
The heist has reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month.
A report by France’s Court of Auditors seen by AFP and covering 2019 to 2024 points to a “persistent” delay in security upgrades at the Louvre. Only a fourth of one wing was covered by video surveillance.
In January, Louvre president Laurence des Cars warned Culture Minister Rachida Dati of a “worrying level of obsolescence”, citing the urgent need for major renovations.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he would tighten security outside cultural institutions.
In Sunday’s heist, thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder, like those used by movers, below the museum’s Apollo Gallery shortly after it opened, climbing up and using cutting equipment to get through a window and open the display cases to steal the jewellery.
They made off with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2000 diamonds.
The museum on Tuesday hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and “represented a considerable improvement in terms of security”.
Chinese arrest
French police officers stand in front of the Louvre Museum after a robbery, in Paris. Robbers broke into the Louvre and fled with jewellery on October 19, 2025 morning. Photo / Dimitar Dilkoff, AFP
Just last month, criminals broke into Paris’ Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than US$1.5m.
French authorities announced a 24-year-old Chinese woman has been charged and put in detention in that case after she was arrested in Barcelona, while trying to dispose of nearly 1kg of melted gold pieces.
Also last month, thieves stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in the central city of Limoges, the losses estimated at US$7.6m.
“Museums are increasingly targeted for the valuable works they hold,” according to the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Labour unions have complained that security staff positions at the Louvre have been cut, even as attendance at the world-famous museum, whose extensive collections include the Mona Lisa, has soared.
“We cannot do without physical surveillance,” a union official said.
The Louvre was shut per its usual schedule on Tuesday, having been closed on Sunday and Monday after the heist, leaving crowds of disappointed tourists.
