Thieves broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole jewelry from

Thieves carried out a brazen seven-minute heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday morning, breaking into the famous monument using a basket lift to force open a window, smash display cases and steal jewelery that is of “inestimable value”, France’s interior minister and the museum said.

The robbery occurred in broad daylight, while tourists were already inside the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world. It was forced to close after the incident as authorities began investigating. Police sealed the doors of the museum and visitors were expelled. No injuries were reported, according to Louvre spokespersons.

“This morning a robbery occurred at the opening of the Louvre Museum,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote in X, while the museum alleged “exceptional reasons” for the closure.

The robbery occurred around 9:30 a.m., when several people broke into the Louvre through the Galerie d’Apollon and stole jewelry before fleeing the scene on motorcycles, a museum spokesperson said in a statement to News themezone.

“An investigation has been launched and a detailed list of stolen items is being compiled,” the statement said. “Beyond their market value, these items have invaluable heritage and historical value.”

France’s culture and interior ministers were at the Louvre working with museum management and law enforcement, the statement continued, adding that “all possible measures are being taken to recover the stolen items.”

The Ministry of the Interior also reported that forensic work was being carried out on Sunday morning and that a precise inventory of the stolen items was being prepared.

Video from the scene showed confused tourists being carried out of the glass pyramid and surrounding courtyards as officers closed the iron gates and nearby streets along the Seine.

Interior Minister Laurent Núñez called it a “major theft” and said the intruders entered from the outside using a lifting basket. The robbery lasted seven minutes and the thieves used a disk cutter to cut the windows, he told France Inter radio. He said it was “manifestly a team that had done exploration.”

The Galerie d’Apollon is a vaulted room in the Denon wing that displays part of the French crown jewels under a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist, according to the ministry.

The French newspaper Le Parisien reported that the thieves entered through the facade facing the Seine, where construction is being carried out, and used a forklift to reach the gallery. After breaking windows, they took nine pieces of Napoleon and the Empress’s jewelry collection. A stolen jewel was later found outside the museum, the newspaper reported, adding that the item was believed to be Empress Eugenie’s crown and was broken.

Security around the canopies remains tight. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass and a custom high-tech display system as part of wider anti-theft measures across the museum.

Staffing and security have been critical points at the Louvre. The museum delayed its opening during a staff strike in June due to overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions have warned that mass tourism puts security and visitor management to the test.

It was not immediately clear if staffing levels played any role in Sunday’s robbery.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron announced a decade-long plan called the “New Renaissance of the Louvre” (roughly €700 million to modernize infrastructure, relieve overcrowding and give Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece its own dedicated gallery by 2031), but workers say aid has been slow to reach the floor.

The theft, less than half an hour after the doors opened, echoes other recent raids on European museums.

In 2019, thieves smashed display cases in Dresden’s Green Vault and made off with diamond-encrusted royal jewels worth hundreds of millions of euros. In 2017, thieves from Berlin’s Bode Museum stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid gold coin. In 2010, a lone intruder sneaked into the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and escaped with five paintings, including a Picasso.

The Louvre has a long history of robberies and attempted robberies. The most famous occurred in 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and came out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence, an episode that helped turn Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait into the best-known work of art in the world.

Home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculptures and paintings (from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters), the Louvre’s star attractions include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The museum can attract up to 30,000 visitors a day.

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