A daring daylight robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris has shocked the French people and left an entire nation wondering, "How?"
According to Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the thieves targeted the French crown jewels, which are worth more than $100 million.
At 9:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, the thieves drove a truck-mounted ladder ("cherry-picker") to a window in the Apollo Gallery where the Crown Jewels were on display. After climbing to a second-story window, the thieves cut through the glass with a disc cutter, which set off the alarm.
Brandishing the disc cutter to intimidate two guards responding to the alarm, the thieves smashed two display cases containing the Crown Jewels.
"The robbers grabbed a royal sapphire necklace, a royal emerald necklace and a diadem worn by Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III," and other items, according to the New York Times.
Authorities say the heist was not an "art theft. " The thieves only stole items encrusted with jewels, suggesting they will probably destroy the jewelry to remove the diamonds, gold, and other gems. "One tiara, which once belonged to Queen Hortense, contained 24 Ceylon sapphires and 1,083 diamonds," reports the Times. Because of that, the French police say it was “commodity theft.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the robbery was "a major, highly organized operation" carried out by a team that had done homework. From beginning to end, the caper took just four minutes to unfold.
The facade of the Apollo Gallery faces the Seine River, making for an easy getaway. The thieves used two Yamaha "TMax" scooters with a powerful 560cc engine. They were last seen entering a nearby highway, where they disappeared.
There is some suggestion that the theft was an "inside job. “One can wonder about the fact that, for example, the windows hadn’t been secured, about the fact that a basket lift was on a public road,” French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told France Inter radio on Monday. “Having been Interior Minister, I know that we cannot completely secure all places, but what is certain is that we have failed.”
Exact details about what was taken are not yet known. But Associated Press reports that eight items were taken from the Apollo Gallery, which houses what is left of the French crown jewels, most of which were stolen after the French Revolution.
The collection consists of pieces owned by the Emperor Napoleon, his nephew Napoleon III, and their wives, the empresses Marie-Louise and Eugenie.
Le Parisien reported that one jewel, the Crown of Empress Eugenie, was later found abandoned and damaged outside the Museum.
Alexandre Giquello, president of the Drouot auction house, said the crown alone was worth "several tens of millions of euros—just this crown. And it's not, in my opinion, the most important item."
"Ideally, the perpetrators would realise the gravity of their crime and the dimension they've entered into, and return the items, since the jewels are completely unsellable," Giquello told Reuters.
Laurence des Cars, the Louvre's president and director, will testify about the heist before a committee of the French Senate on Wednesday. She will have to respond to charges from labor unions that "obsolete" equipment may have been partially responsible for the security breach.
"We have raised the alarm through our union, and our colleagues have all repeatedly warned about the difficulties we face every day at work; equipment being in poor condition, sometimes even completely obsolete, coupled with a very drastic cut in staff," Elise Muller, who patrols rooms inside the former palace, told Sky News. "We inevitably reached the limit of what we could do to secure the building and its collections."
French authorities believe the pieces have already been broken down, and the jewels from them have been collected for sale. This is a sad end to priceless items of immense historical significance.
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