Museum Director Summoned After $102 Million Jewel Heist At Louvre
Thieves steal Napoleon-era gems; Louvre director faces Senate grill.
In a daring seven-minute daylight raid, thieves stole eight priceless royal jewels worth over $100 million from the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery on Sunday, October 19, 2025, leaving France’s cultural heritage in shock. The haul included Napoleon I’s emerald-and-diamond necklace for Empress Marie-Louise and Empress Eugénie’s diadem studded with nearly 2,000 diamonds. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed the $102 million valuation and warned that melting the historic pieces would destroy their true value. Four suspects used a moving truck with an extendable ladder, cut through a window, smashed display cases, and fled on scooters—dropping a diamond crown in their escape.
Louvre director Laurence des Cars, silent since the heist, will face the Senate culture committee on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. to answer for security failures. A recent Court of Auditors report slammed the museum’s outdated systems, noting only one-fourth of a wing had video surveillance. Des Cars had warned Culture Minister Rachida Dati in January about “worrying obsolescence” and the urgent need for upgrades. The Louvre defended its 2019 display cases as a “considerable improvement,” but unions blasted staff cuts despite record attendance.
Investigators are analyzing fingerprints, CCTV footage from the museum and Paris highways, and tracking the dropped crown. The heist follows two museum thefts last month: $1.5 million in gold nuggets from Paris’s Natural History Museum and $7.6 million in porcelain from Limoges. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona trying to sell melted gold from the earlier case. France’s anti-cultural trafficking unit says museums are increasingly targeted.
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The Louvre, home to the Mona Lisa, reopened Wednesday after a two-day closure and Tuesday’s regular shutdown, frustrating thousands of tourists. Security experts and unions demand more guards and tech upgrades. As the hunt for the royal jewel thieves intensifies, the brazen robbery exposes deep vulnerabilities in France’s world-class museums.
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