Thieves steal ‘priceless’ jewelry from the Louvre in seven-minute raid

By Martin Goillandeau, Caitlin Danaher, Saskya Vandoorne, CNN

Paris (CNN) — Thieves have stolen “priceless” jewelry from the Louvre in Paris, the world’s most-visited museum, in an audacious seven-minute raid on Sunday, the French interior minister has said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told radio station France Inter: “A major robbery took place this morning in the Apollo Room. Individuals entered the Louvre Museum from outside, using a external freight elevator that was positioned on a truck.”

The Apollo Room houses the French Crown Jewels, as well as treasures including Louis XIV’s hardstone vessel collection.

The thieves forced open a window using an angle grinder and stole jewelry that has “sentimental value and is priceless,” the interior minister added.

There were “three or four perpetrators,” Nuñez said.

Minister of Culture Rachida Dati told French TV station TF1 that one piece of jewelry had been found near the Louvre and was being evaluated.

TF1 and newspaper Le Parisien said the recovered piece was the crown of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. The ornate gold piece, which features 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, was damaged in the heist, they said.

Le Parisien said a second piece of jewelry had also been recovered, but did not identify it.

A detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled, the interior ministry said in a statement. “Beyond their market value, the items have inestimable heritage and historical value,” it added.

‘Get out, evacuate’

The robbery took only seven minutes, with the suspects fleeing on motorcycles, Nuñez told France Inter.

“Clearly, a team had been scouting the location. It was obviously a very experienced team that acted very, very quickly,” the interior minister said.

“I am confident that we will very quickly find the perpetrators and, above all, recover the stolen goods,” he added.

Video from the scene showed French police examining an abandoned furniture elevator positioned next to a corner of the Louvre, with its ladder leading up to a broken window off a balcony.

A tour guide told CNN how he had heard what sounded like “stomping” on the window as he led tourists through the Apollo Room, before hearing shouts from security guards to evacuate.

“I was just trying to figure out what’s happening when I saw the museum staff going to that noise. Then they did a turn around, like real quick, and they started running and saying ‘get out, get out, get out, get out, evacuate!” Ryan el Mandari said.

He tried to keep his group of visitors calm as they left the building, he said, adding that they heard the sounds but “had no clue that it was a robbery.”

Robbery planned ‘meticulously’

The French interior ministry said the incident took place at 9:30 a.m. local time and that members of the public had been evacuated without incident.

Dati said the robbery had taken place as the museum opened. “No injuries were reported. I am on site alongside museum staff and the police. Investigations are ongoing,” Dati said in a post on X.

The museum, which houses world-famous artworks including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, said it would remain closed on Sunday due to “exceptional reasons.”

The interior ministry later said the closure was a security measure to preserve evidence for the investigation.

The mayor of Paris Center, Ariel Weil, told reporters that the thieves had “planned this meticulously, obviously” and that he could not recall the Louvre being the target of a robbery in more than a century. “I’m thinking, of course, of the Mona Lisa sting in 1911, but I can’t think of any more recent robbery,” he said.

Last year, the Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors, with tourists from the United States making up 13% of all guests, second only to the French.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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CNN’s Melissa Bell contributed to this report.