2025-10-20T10:08:16+00:00
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Shafaq News – Paris
The theft of royal jewelry
from Paris’s landmark Louvre Museum revealed serious security flaws and damaged
the country’s global image, France’s Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin acknowledged
on Monday.
“What is certain is that we
have failed,” Darmanin told France Inter radio, pointing out that thieves were
able to park a mechanical lift in central Paris, scale it within minutes, and
steal priceless artifacts undeterred.
Newly appointed Interior
Minister Laurent Nunez also weighed in, calling museum security across France a
“major weak point.”
The Louvre, which was set to
reopen at 9:00 a.m. Monday, remained closed as police widened their search for
suspects who stole eight 19th-century royal jewels from the Apollo Gallery
early Sunday.
A source close to the
investigation, cited by Agence France-Presse, said the thieves arrived just
after opening, used an extendable ladder to access a window, cut through the
glass, and smashed display cases with power tools in a heist lasting only seven
minutes.
Authorities suspect a
professional, possibly international, crew, with 60 investigators assigned to
the case and a visitor-filmed video—now circulating in French media—capturing
part of the break-in.
Among the stolen pieces were
an emerald-and-diamond necklace gifted by Napoleon to his wife Empress Marie
Louise, a diamond-encrusted diadem owned by Empress Eugénie, and a necklace
once belonging to Queen Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France, containing 631
diamonds and eight sapphires.
One piece—the crown of Empress
Eugénie—was reportedly dropped and damaged during the thieves’ escape, as
museum staff intervened and forced the group to abandon tools and equipment,
according to the Ministry of Culture.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau
confirmed investigators are pursuing two main leads: either the heist was
commissioned by a private collector or tied to an international
money-laundering operation.
This marks the Louvre’s first
major theft since 1998, when a Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot painting vanished
and was never recovered.