{"id":411245,"date":"2025-11-28T19:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411245\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T19:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T19:44:12","slug":"french-police-arrest-man-linked-to-louvre-museum-crown-jewels-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411245\/","title":{"rendered":"French police arrest man linked to Louvre Museum crown jewels heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 A man arrested by French police earlier this week<\/a> is thought to be the fourth member of the team that stole France\u2019s crown jewels<\/a> from the Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Friday, meaning that the entire gang that carried out the brazen heist<\/a> is now believed to have been caught. <\/p>\n

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is heading the investigation, said the 39-year-old man has a criminal record, with six previous convictions, including for receiving stolen goods, for which he was given a 2-month suspended prison sentence in 2010.<\/p>\n

He has now been handed preliminary charges of robbery by an organized gang, punishable by 15 years imprisonment, and criminal conspiracy, which can carry a 10-year sentence if he is convicted for his suspected role in the stunning Oct. 19 theft<\/a> at the world\u2019s most-visited museum<\/a>. The robbery gang\u2019s haul of loot was worth an estimated 88 million euros<\/a> ($102 million) \u2014 a monetary value that didn\u2019t include the jewels\u2019 huge historical value to France.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s statement didn\u2019t say what role, exactly, the man is thought to have played in the daylight heist, carried out<\/a> with angle grinders, a freight lift and subterfuge, with robbers dressed as workers in bright vests. <\/p>\n

Three other people also taken into police custody for questioning this week have been released without charge, the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n

Police investigators are continuing their work \u201cto locate the stolen jewels and to precisely determine each person\u2019s role in this organized criminal group, as well as to clarify how the theft was planned and perpetrated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The robbery is believed to have been carried out by a four-person team \u2014 with two breaking into the museum\u2019s ornate Apollo Gallery where the jewels were displayed and then being whisked away on motorbikes by two associates who waited outside.<\/p>\n

Three men<\/a>, the robbery team\u2019s other suspected members, were arrested in October and handed preliminary charges of theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy. DNA traces were found at the scene or on items linked to the robbery.<\/p>\n

Police also arrested a woman in October. She faces preliminary charges of complicity in theft and criminal conspiracy. She is the longtime partner of one of the alleged robbers. The couple have children together and live in the northern suburbs of Paris, also home to other suspects.<\/p>\n

The woman denied any involvement<\/a>, her lawyer said.<\/p>\n

The haul hasn\u2019t been recovered<\/a>. It includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Am\u00e9lie and Hortense, and Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s pearl-and-diamond tiara.<\/p>\n

The robbery has focused attention on security at the Louvre<\/a>. The museum\u2019s director has acknowledged a \u2033terrible failure\u201d and promised the installation<\/a> of new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems.<\/p>\n

The thieves took less than eight minutes<\/a> to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach one of the building\u2019s windows. Footage from museum cameras showed that the two who broke into the Apollo Gallery used grinders to cut into jewelry display cases.<\/p>\n

The emerald-set imperial crown<\/a> of Napoleon III\u2019s wife, Empress Eug\u00e9nie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 A man arrested by French police earlier this week is thought to be the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":411246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,4219,156,57,4228,161593,2936,159024,50,34163,3715,8156,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-411245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-indictments","13":"tag-laure-beccuau","14":"tag-law-enforcement","15":"tag-louvre-museum","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-organized-crime","18":"tag-paris","19":"tag-theft","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}