Paris, France – Thieves brazenly stole eight pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum overnight, utilizing an unexpected method: a moving elevator. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the theft as “an attack on our history and on our heritage that we cherish as it is indeed our history,” vowing to recover the stolen items and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The daring heist, one of the most notable in Europe in recent years, echoes a 2019 robbery at the Grünes Gewölbe museum in Dresden, Germany, where thieves made off with approximately €113 million worth of jewelry – most of which was recovered after three years, leading to prison sentences for five individuals. This latest incident at the Louvre underscores ongoing security challenges faced by major cultural institutions,notably amid concerns about staffing levels.
The Louvre has a storied history of thefts, including the infamous 1911 theft of the mona Lisa, recovered two years later in Florence, and a 1998 daylight robbery of a Camille Corot painting that remains missing. However, the method employed in this latest theft – accessing the jewelry through a moving elevator – is particularly unusual.
Currently, investigators are working to determine if recent staff shortages and union warnings about insufficient security coverage contributed to the success of the robbery. Unions have highlighted critical vulnerabilities within the museum,particularly at intersections of construction zones,freight routes,and visitor pathways. The museum experienced a spontaneous strike and delayed opening last June due to staff dissatisfaction with visitor numbers and limited personnel. It remains unclear whether these factors played a role in this incident.
