The Latest Breaking News on ‘Smash, grab, melt it down’: how material value likely motivated the Louvre heist

The philistine thieves skipped the museum’s real treasures in favour of dull royal knick-knacks. Was the French cultural minister serious when he talked about their ‘immeasurable cultural value’?

The robbers targeted the Apollon gallery and were able to flee on motorbikes with priceless jewels

Thieves stole jewels worth millions from the world’s most-visited museum in a heist which took just seven minutes

Justice minister says ‘we have failed’ after thieves take seven minutes to steal priceless jewels from museum

The Louvre temporarily closed after a daylight jewel heist in its Galerie d'Apollon. Officials say the museum will reopen once security upgrades are complete.

One $60 million crown was dropped and broken as the thieves made their getaway.

The heist has been branded ‘the theft of the decade’

The world’s largest art museum, the Louvre has approximately half a million objects in its collection, with about 30,000 on display, and sees on average 8 million visitors per year. That’s big on any scale, with a lot of people and objects to keep watch over. And Sundays are particularly…

The hunt was on Monday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight.