Priceless Jewels Stolen in daring Heist at the Louvre Museum
PARIS – Thieves employed a sophisticated tactic – utilizing a basket lift – to stealโ a collection of priceless jewels โฃfrom the Louvre โขMuseum in Parisโฃ on Sunday, authorities confirmed.The brazen robbery, occurring less than 30โฃ minutes afterโ the museum opened, targeted items from the Galerie d’Apollon.
The stolen jewels represent a significant loss โขfor the museum and underscore ongoing concerns about โsecurity โคvulnerabilities within major European cultural institutions. While โฃtheโค exact value of the stolen items remains undisclosed, they are described asโ being of “extremely high” worth. No arrests have been made as of Monday.
The louvre, one of the world’s largest and most visited museums, houses โoverโ 33,000 works of art, including iconic pieces like the Mona Lisa, the Venus โคde Milo, and the Winged victory โคof Samothrace. It drawsโ up โฃtoโข 30,000 โvisitors daily. โ
This incident echoesโ a series of high-profile museum โคthefts across Europe in recent years. In 2019, โคthieves stole diamond-studded royal jewels from Dresden’s Green Vault, valued at hundredsโ of โขmillions of euros. โ โBerlin’s Bode โฃMuseum was targeted in 2017 with โthe theft of a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid-gold coin, and inโ 2010, โa Picasso and other paintings โฃwere stolen from Paris’s Museum of Modernโข Art.
The Louvre itself hasโข a storied history โคof art theft, most famously the 1911 disappearance of โคthe mona Lisa, stolen by Vincenzo peruggia,โ a formerโ museum worker. The paintingโฃ wasโค recovered two years later in Florence.
Staffing and security have been ongoing issues at the Louvre. Aโฃ staff walkout in โJune,โฃ prompted by overcrowding and understaffing, led to a temporary museum closure. Unions have warned that increasing tourism โคstrainsโ security and โฃvisitor management. Presidentโฃ Emmanuel Macron announced aโ decadelong “Louvre New Renaissance”โ plan in January – a roughly โฌ700 million โฃinvestment to modernize infrastructure and โคease crowding – but workers โreport slowโข implementation of improvements.
It is currently โฃunclear whether staffing levels contributed to Sunday’s theft, andโข anโฃ investigation is underway.