(NewsNation) — In just minutes, a group of thieves entered the Louvre dressed as construction workers, smashed display cases and made away with Napoleon-era jewels, according to officials.
The heist happened 30 minutes after the museum — which houses more than 350,000 objects in Paris, France — opened on Sunday.
The perpetrators rode a basket lift up its Seine-facing façade, cut windowpanes with a disc cutter, entered the Apollon Gallery and shattered two of the royal collection’s display cases. They then fled on motorbikes, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.
Photos: Which jewels were stolen from the Louvre?
The thieves took at least eight pieces of France’s crown jewels, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
Other stolen valuables were an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem and bow-breech belonging to Empress Eugénie.
Her crown was recovered, broken, outside of the museum on Sunday, officials told local reporters.
“An investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled,” a museum spokesperson told CBS News. “Beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value.”
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This photograph shows “Collier et boucles d’oreilles de la parure d’émeraudes de l’impératrice Marie-Louise” (necklace and earrings of the set of jewelry of Empress Marie-Louise) displayed at Apollon’s Gallery on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris after the reopening of the Gallery following ten months of renovations. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images) -
This photograph shows the crown of the Empress of the French Eugénie de Montijo displayed at Apollon’s Gallery on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris after the reopening of the Gallery following ten months of renovations. Robbers broke in to the Louvre and fled with jewellery on October 19, 2025 morning. France’s Interior Minister said that jewellery stolen from the Louvre Museum was “priceless”. Diamond and emerald crown of the Empress of the French Eugénie de Montijo was found broken near Louvre after robbery, a source close to the case announced. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images) -
UNITED STATES – APRIL 11: The Empress Eugenie Brooch, an antique diamond bow brooch, sits on display during a media preview for the “Christie’s Rare Jewels and Gemstones: The Eye of a Connoisseur” sale in New York, U.S., on Friday, April 11, 2008. The auction was later canceled due to a legal battle by jeweler Ralph O. Esmerian, who argued he could get far more for the jewels through private sales — and thus pay off a $178 million debt owed to Merrill Lynch & Co. by selling fewer pieces. The brooch was later purchased by the Louvre Museum for $10.7 million. (Photo by Jb Reed/Bloomberg via Getty Images) -
PARIS, FRANCE – APRIL 27: The Empress Eugénie’s crown is exhibited at the Louvre Museum on April 27, 2025 in Paris, France. The world-renowned Louvre museum in Paris was shut on October 19 after several pieces of invaluable jewelry were stolen in a brazen robbery. (Photo by Zhang Weiguo/VCG via Getty Images) -
This photograph shows the “parure de la reine Marie-Amelie et de la Reine Hortense” (set of jewelry of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense) displayed at Apollon’s Gallery on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris after the reopening of the Gallery following ten months of renovations. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, told The Associated Press that it is “unlikely these jewels will ever be seen again.”
“Professional crews often break down and re-cut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, effectively erasing their provenance,” Kormind said.
The Apollon Gallery, deemed a “gallery fit for a Sun King” by the Louvre, also contains Louis XIV’s hardstone vessel collection, table decorations and portrait tapestries of 28 monarchs and artists.
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