$102 million worth of jewelry were stolen from the Louvre in a seven-minute heist on Oct. 19, at 9:30 a.m. A week later, officials announced that two suspects were arrested on Oct. 25. The movie-like robbery raised significant questions: How did the robbers manage to break into the “world’s most-visited art museum” in broad daylight and what treasures were stolen during the audacious raid?
Originally constructed as a medieval fortress in the 12th century, the Louvre has gone through over 20 renovations and generations of rulers to become the sprawling structure it is today. It has withstood numerous historical upheavals, including the violent raids of the French Revolution and the invasions of Nazi Germany. The museum is now home to more than 500,000 works, many of which took several decades to retrieve.
The Louvre’s size is a standing testament for French history and identity, but at the same time its massiveness makes the museum vulnerable against thievery since it is extremely difficult to oversee and protect.
30 minutes after the world-renowned museum opened on Oct. 19 morning, a truck arrived at the south side of the building and parked along the sidewalk, right next to the walls of the Apollo Gallery. Four masked men wearing yellow vests hopped out of the truck and began placing traffic cones, convincingly posing as workers.
Two of the thieves climbed up a monte-meuble — a truck-mounted electric ladder specialized to lift bulky furniture — and ascended to the second floor of the building at 9:34 a.m. They used power tools to break through a window, which granted them access to the gallery’s treasury of priceless crown jewels. Upon their entry, the thieves shattered two display cases and seized eight glittering pieces before fleeing the scene on motor scooters.
The eight stolen items include the Tiara of Empress Eugénie, which features 212 pearls, 1,998 diamonds and 992 rose-cut diamonds. The massive jeweled tiara was commissioned by Napoleon III as an elaborate wedding gift for his bride — Eugénie of Montijo. The tiara was not the only stolen possession from the last empress of France; the thieves snatched her decorative bow with jeweled tassels, adorned with 2,438 diamonds and 96 rose-cut diamonds, as well as her jeweled reliquary brooch, an imperial splendor that symbolizes her devotion to Catholicism.
The robbers also attempted to steal the crown of Empress Eugénie, composed of eight gold eagles, 2,490 diamonds and 56 emeralds. However, their effort was abandoned after guards interrupted the raid.
A set of Sapphire-embellished tiara, necklace and earring are among the items seized in the raid. Although its commissioner is unknown, it was worn by multiple members of the court society, including Queen Hortense, wife of Louis Bonaparte, and Queen Marie Amélie, wife of Louis Philippe I. The tiara is composed of 24 Ceylon sapphires and 1,083 diamonds, and the necklace includes eight sapphires ornamented intricately with gold. Only one of the earrings was seized during the heist.
The emerald and diamond necklace and a pair of emerald and diamond earrings — a luxurious wedding gift set given by Napoleon to his second wife, Marie Louise — also fell victim to the robbers.
Art crime experts suggest that the robbers’ interest was not in the profound historical provenance of the tiaras, earrings and necklaces. Instead, their main motivation was probably the intrinsic value of the gems and precious metals — which could be easily broken up and sold undetected.
Prior to this incident, the museum’s last major known theft was in 1998 when thieves stole Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot’s “Le Chemin de Sèvres.” Painted in 1858 and acquired by the Louvre in 1902, the small landscape, valued at approximately $1.3 million and measuring 17.7 by 25.6 inches, was cut from its frame. The thief then removed the pegs securing the painting and escaped without anyone noticing. Investigators suspect that the painting has been sold or traded on the black market, and, tragically, “Le Chemin de Sèvres” has never been found.
Another well-known case of thievery at the Louvre was in December of 1976, involving a diamond-studded sword that belonged to King Charles X. Three masked burglars broke into the museum and took the sword from its glass showcase after assaulting two guards. The sword was never recovered.
One of the most infamous burglaries at the Louvre is the “Mona Lisa” Heist of 1911. The archetypal masterpiece by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci was stolen by a former Louvre employee — Vincenzo Peruggia. Peruggia was an Italian immigrant who was motivated by strong national pride and wanted to return the “Mona Lisa” to Italy. He entered the Museum on a Sunday night and hid in a broom closet overnight. The following morning, he wrapped the painting in a sheet and left. It took until Tuesday for people to notice that the “Mona Lisa” vanished. Two years later, Peruggia was arrested while trying to sell the painting. Now the “Mona Lisa” is sealed in a custom climate controlled, bulletproof glass box while sensors on the painting’s wooden reverse side detect even the slightest movement.
Prior to the brazen heist on Oct. 19, concerns regarding the security of the Louvre were raised. Police patrols are mainly concentrated at the crowded central entrance of the museum. The presence of surveillance cameras was supposed to compensate for the absence of officers, however, a third of the rooms in the Denon wing, where the burglary occurred, did not have cameras installed. In the Richelieu wing — home to masterpieces by Poussin, Dürer and Vermeer, as well as the ancient Persian and Mesopotamia collections — only one-quarter of 182 rooms are actually monitored by surveillance cameras. Moreover, labor unions at the Louvre had warned that the constant renovations, repair work and scaffolding for fundraising events pose further challenges to detect suspicious activity.
Will the stolen treasures ever return home safely to retell their stories? Or will they vanish into the shadows of the black market — being crushed and scattered like lost threads in the fabric of history? Beyond that, will this seven-minute brazen heist serve as a wake-up call to better safeguard the heritage forged over centuries?
Eva Jia is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the fall 2025 quarter. She can be reached at jiae1@uci.edu.
Edited by Corinna Chin and Annabelle Aguirre.