Both Hollywood and Netflix have accustomed us to these grand plans. However, we still find it strange that the biggest heist of the year did not take place under the cover of night, but in broad daylight with the museum open.
Four men acted with the precision of a military team. If we thought the theft of the Mona Lisa in the last century was a topic of debate, the loss of the jewels is much more humiliating for France. These four individuals were able to take away a priceless part of French imperial history… in just seven minutes. The heist at the Louvre museum on October 19, 2025, was not only a spectacular crime, but also a painful revelation of the systematic security failures at the heart of the French nation.
Anatomy of the Louvre Heist
While the Mona Lisa painting is protected by bulletproof glass and obsessive security personnel, there were crown jewels worth millions of euros in the Apollo Gallery. The room had been housing the French crown jewels for some time. The thieves did not enter through the entrance, but through the facade facing the Seine, a side of the building that was compromised by construction work. They appeared dressed as construction workers with reflective vests. The perfect disguise to make it look like they had a right to be there.
Since construction was underway in that part of the Louvre, they only needed to add a furniture lift to reach a second-floor balcony window. It was so simple that it was perfect for them to bypass the security on the ground floor almost entirely. Once upstairs, they went from being discreet to breaking in. They used radial saws (also known as disc cutters) and in one swift move managed to take eight or nine pieces of Napoleonic royal jewelry, including emerald and sapphire necklaces and earrings belonging to Empresses Marie Louise and Eugénie.
The value of the stolen material is estimated at €88 million. Its historical and cultural value is simply incalculable. This humble writer believes that plastic replicas purchased from Claire’s should be put on display for the public to see, since we have already seen what happens when heritage is left exposed without adequate security.
To make matters worse, one of the thieves dropped Empress Eugénie’s crown, which has been dented but is repairable.
A Silenced Security Alarm?
But if the Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, how could it be so poorly protected? One of the first suspicions revolves around the alarm system. Some suspect that it was deactivated due to false alarms. However, the alarm was deactivated as soon as the thieves broke the window and display cases. It was not the alarm, but the response. There was simply not enough security personnel on duty when the theft took place. The theft has highlighted the flaws that unions have been reporting for years in internal reports: obsolete security and a chronic shortage of personnel.
The precision of the robbery inevitably raises the suspicion that the thieves had too much inside information. They knew the layout of the exhibition and when the security patrol would be furthest away from the area they were going to rob. They left the Regent Diamond, a piece too famous to be sold, and focused on loose gemstone jewelry that could be easily dismantled. If the robbery was not commissioned by a wealthy individual, it is likely that the jewelry will be dismantled and the precious stones scattered around the world.
Certainly, the police and experts agree that the criminal’s motive is not to collect, but rather to destroy heritage in order to monetize its components. Although Interpol has issued an international alert, the likelihood of recovering these pieces diminishes dramatically with the passage of time. And for now, calls are being made for the figurative—and literal—heads of the Minister of Justice and the Director of the Louvre.