We’re big fans of heist movies here at The Mary Sue, but we never dreamed we’d get to report on an honest-to-goodness Louvre Museum robbery. A group of theives literally did their own version of “Gone in 7 Minutes” in the world-famous landmark on Sunday. French authorities are still looking for these four mystery people as of the time of this article’s writing. Thieves helped themselves to crown jewels with the help of a truck’s basket lift and some careful planning. It’s the kind of thing we see in movies and we’re trying to figure out how something like this even happens in 2025.
CNN interviewed France’s interior minister Laurent Nuñez this week, after the robbery occured. In the government’s estimation, this whole thing was planned to within the second. “Clearly, a team had been scouting the location. It was obviously a very experienced team that acted very, very quickly,” the interior minister offered. “I am confident that we will very quickly find the perpetrators and, above all, recover the stolen goods,”
People from all over are mystified how an attack of this size could have been successfully completed in broad daylight. But, with this level of planning and coordination, it’s not exactly unfathomable. Much like heist movies, pinpointing the flaws in whatever security the Louvre Museum had in place is absolutely the key to getting away. France’s government is none too pleased about the four thieves making off with so much loot. However, with no real leads to speak of yet, we’re left to parse out the details.
Four thieves rob The Louvre in broad daylight
All-in-all, the thieves escaped with the contents of two high-security display cases in The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery. (That’s where they literally keep the French Crown Jewels.) So, this group nicked some absolutely priceless artifacts. And, when they had to leg it out of there, they ditched the decadent crown of Empress Eugenie.
That’s Napoleon III’s wife and her headpiece is worth more dough than you can imagine. According to CNN’s reporting, there are approximately 1,354 jewels in the crown. Along with the obvious gold involved, there were also 56 emeralds imbedded in this single piece of jewelry. Now, the French Culture Ministry reports that it was damaged when it was “abandoned,” as the thieves fled.
On the ground, French authorities have discovered an abandoned furniture elevator in one corner of the museum. Next to it, they stumbled upon a ladder leading to a broken window on a nearby balcony. From there, Le Parisien reports that police also recovered, “two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket and a crown.” In addition to some helpful yellow vests (a disguise!), these faux workmen made their way inside The Louvre.
Doesn’t sound like they’re going to recover everything
One understandable worry along with this robbery is the fact that the thieves are unlikely to keep all of this jewelry in one piece. President Emmanuel Macron told the media that these mystery robbers are likely to melt down their spoils in an effort to get rid of the evidence and cash it all out before they can be detected. It’s a race against the clock, and it’s already getting late for the Art Recovery International team on the case.
The leader of that effort is Chistopher Marinello, who told CNN that they needed to work fast. In a statement, the founder said, “We need to break up these gangs and find another approach, or we’re going to lose things that we are never going to see again.”
So, as the mystery unfolds, and the authorities learn more about the robbery, a picture begins to form of how large this operation really was. While French authorities gesture at larger gangs involvement here, that does little to get back the rogue jewels and find out who exactly is responsible. Might I suggest finding out what our friend Vin Diesel and pals have been up to? You might be on the right track.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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