The Louvre Museum in Paris has been closed for the day after a theft on Sunday, native officers have mentioned. Unconfirmed media studies claimed that a number of criminals stole 9 items from the Napoleonic jewellery assortment.
The incident was reported by French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who mentioned on X that “a robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum.” She added that there aren’t any studies of accidents and {that a} police investigation is underway. The minister supplied no additional particulars.
The museum itself mentioned that it’ll stay closed for the day because of “exceptional reasons.”
The newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing a preliminary investigation, that a number of hooded criminals broke into the world’s most visited artwork museum by way of a constructing the place development work is ongoing, after which used a freight elevator to entry a room within the Apollo Gallery, which homes a part of France’s historic royal jewelry.
The thieves reportedly stole 9 items from the jewelry assortment of Napoleon and the Empress, together with a necklace, a brooch, a tiara, and a number of other different gadgets, in accordance with the paper. However, the 140-carat Regent Diamond, estimated to be price greater than $60 million, reportedly remained in place.
Le Parisien mentioned that one of many stolen gadgets, which seems to be a damaged crown of Empress Eugenie, the partner of Napoleon III, was discovered outdoors the museum.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez later advised reporters that the complete heist took solely seven minutes, which means the criminals “had been clearly scouting.” He acknowledged that the authorities “can’t prevent everything,” including that there’s “great vulnerability in French museums.”
The final theft from the Louvre dates again to 1983, when two Renaissance metalwork items – a ceremonial helmet and breastplate — have been stolen. They have been recovered in Belgium in 2021.
The most well-known Louvre theft, nevertheless, occurred in 1911, when an Italian tradesman named Vincenzo Peruggia stole Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, hiding it beneath his smock. The portray was lacking for 2 years, a heist that helped make it the world’s most acknowledged art work.
The Louvre attracts round 9 million guests annually, and homes greater than 615,000 objects, together with about 35,000 artworks on public show, spanning from historical civilizations to the nineteenth century.
