What is the first thought that comes to mind when you think of the Louvre? Is that the pyramid in its main courtyard? The places where The da Vinci Code was shot? Or, perhaps most iconically, a place where the mysterious Mona Lisa has found a place to smile for centuries to come? Well, all of that makes perfect sense. But just recently, the Louvre has also become a place of a 100-million-dollar robbery where 8 pieces of French Royal Jewels from two centuries ago got stolen.
The whole of France was outraged by the robbery. “An unbearable humiliation,” “an attack on our history,” “a wound to the French soul,” that’s how some reporters and officials describe the accident. Naturally, the lost jewels have become the subject of a nationwide hunt.
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Four bandits used a mechanical lift put on a vehicle to break into a jewelry hall called the Galerie d’Apollon just at the start of the working day, at about 9:31 a.m. CET on Monday. Two gang members forcefully entered through a first-floor window, threatened museum guards, then broke the glass cases with the royal jewels. It took robbers 4 minutes to capture their loot before they fled on scooters that were waiting outside at 9:39 a.m.
A quick-thinking museum worker prevented the gang from setting fire to their vehicle near the balcony. Interestingly, the criminals left behind Empress Eugenie’s crown not far from the museum (it was broken and not intact).
According to the media, one in three rooms in the robbed area wasn’t covered by closed-circuit television. Thus, in order to track which way the robbers escaped, detectives are using recordings from the surrounding area. Even though the Museum’s main alarms did work, the Culture Minister of France has admitted that the local alarms had a malfunction. It’s evident that the Louvre needs to review its security measures and significantly strengthen them. Luckily, as a part of Macron’s New Renaissance project, it was already assigned $815-932 million in state funding to renovate the security system.
What jewelry was stolen?
Photo courtesy of Louvre Museum.
Among the eight stolen items were Marie-Louise’s necklace and a pair of emerald earrings.
A diamond-and-pearl tiara once worn by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, has been stolen.
One of a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings, once owned by a 19th-century queen, is also missing.
The thieves made off with Marie-Amélie’s crown, but dropped Princess Eugénie’s during their getaway.
The thieves took several pieces, including a sapphire-and-diamond necklace once worn by Queen Marie-Amélie, wife of King Louis-Philippe I.
A large gem-studded bow once owned by the Empress is also missing.
In total, the officials confirm that eight objects were taken by criminals. A necklace, sapphire tiara, and an earring connected to Queens Hortense and Marie-Amelie; Empress Marie Louise’s emerald earrings and custom necklace with the same stones; Empress Eugenie’s tiara and two brooches (one of which is the so-called “Reliquary Brooch” of unknown commission).
Chris Marinelo and other experts say that the items should be found as soon as possible because the thieves will likely break them apart and disassemble them into small pieces in order to make modern jewelry and sell it. This is why 62 investigators are working on this case.
If you didn’t know, the Museum has already experienced a famous robbery before. The iconic Mona Lisa got stolen by an employee more than a century ago and was found a couple years later. Furthermore, museum robberies became something of a current trend in France. In just this year, several high-profile museums were already attacked, and many items of art are still missing.
As of now, we don’t know the location of almost all stolen items. Detectives are still looking for more leads, trying to follow the criminals’ escape routes. The Olertis hopes that the jewels will be found as soon as possible, escaping the fate of being disassembled, melted, sold, or forever being lost in some private collection.
