On Sunday, October 19, at the Louvre in Paris, France, four men dressed up as construction workers and entered the famous museum. They stole eight priceless pieces of royal jewelry, like necklaces, crowns or earrings, right in the middle of the day. It sounds like something straight out of a movie, but it actually happened. Gregory Prodhomme, a man from France states, “As a French person, my first reaction was absolute shock. The Louvre is such an important symbol of our culture and history that I couldn’t imagine anyone daring to steal from it.”
According to police reports, the suspects pulled up in a truck near the Seine River and used a ladder to climb into a second-floor window of the museum’s Apollo Gallery. Within minutes, they smashed glass cases and made off with the jewelry. The security was for sure not present enough during this robbery. Samantha Bell ‘28 said, “That’s crazy that something like that happened in a museum as famous as the Louvre. I think they should take the time, the money, and the appreciation to protect it better.”
The stolen items included a diadem, crown, necklace and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III. They also broke her crown, though it was reportedly found damaged outside the museum after the thieves’ escape. The total value of the missing treasure is estimated at more than $120 million.
On October 25, two suspects were arrested by the police; they are both around 30 years old and one of them was found at the Charles de Gaulle airport and was ready to board to fly abroad. Neither of their names has been released yet.
To this date, we still have no clue where the missing jewelry is. But the French investigators are racing to find them before the thieves distort them before it’s too late.