The Louvre Museum in Paris reopened its doors on Wednesday, three days after a daring heist that saw thieves flee with royal jewellery worth an estimated €88 million (£74 million). Visitors streamed back into the world-famous museum for the first time since the audacious robbery, which stunned France and made global headlines.
According to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the theft took place on Sunday morning, shortly after the museum reopened to the public. The robbers, believed to be a four-member gang, parked a moving truck with an extendable ladder below the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery, home to priceless royal artefacts. Within seven minutes, they had climbed into the building through a window, broken open display cases using cutting tools, and vanished with eight historic pieces of jewellery.
Among the stolen items were an emerald-and-diamond necklace gifted by Napoleon I to Empress Marie-Louise and a diamond diadem once owned by Empress Eugénie, which alone contains nearly 2,000 diamonds.
As the museum reopened to visitors, Louvre Director Laurence des Cars faced tough questions from French senators over how such a high-security institution could be breached so easily. Investigators are now analysing fingerprints and surveillance footage to identify the culprits, with international law enforcement agencies alerted to prevent the jewels from being sold or smuggled abroad.
The Louvre heist comes barely a month after a break-in at Paris’s Natural History Museum, where gold nuggets worth over $1.5 million were stolen. The back-to-back incidents have renewed calls for tighter security at France’s premier cultural institutions.
Despite the lingering shock, the Louvre’s reopening drew crowds eager to return to the galleries, a sign, perhaps, that even the world’s most sensational art heist cannot dim the allure of one of humanity’s greatest cultural treasures.
Source: News18