It was a bright Sunday morning in Paris, France, on Oct. 19, 30 minutes after the Louvre opened. The museum was filled with its traditional crowd of unsuspecting visitors. All the artifacts were in place, and tourists were just starting to begin walking through the vast halls of art and architecture, however something was amiss.
The robbers managed to sneak into the museum disguised as construction workers and steal several pieces of priceless jewelry. According to APNews, their entry point was later discovered to be a basket lift, after they managed to use the construction equipment to disguise their true intentions. They cut a hole in a window with a disc cutter, then escaped on motorbikes carrying the jewelry.
BBC states that the jewelry stolen is of immeasurable value, including eight 19th century Napoleonic pieces. Later, they managed to recover one of the crowns stolen, an emerald and diamond crown belonging to Empress Eugénie, Napoleon III’s wife, that had seemingly been dropped during the escape. They were not able to recover Empress Eugénie’s tiara and brooch, emerald earrings and necklace belonging to Empress Marie Louise, and a sapphire tiara, single earring, the “reliquary” brooch, and necklace set belonging to Queen Hortense and Queen Marie-Amelie.
Currently, French authorities are racing to try and find the thieves, because if they manage to sell the jewelry, it would be incredibly hard to trace where they sent the items. The tiaras and necklaces are easy to take apart and sell in pieces, which would make conservation efforts incredibly difficult if the jewelry was to be recovered. Luckily, no one was injured, however Independent states the displays were smashed and guards were threatened in the process.
This is not the only hardship the Louvre has gone through recently, the most notable is overcrowding. According to CNN, the overcrowding has caused a noticeable decrease in the overall quality of experience in the museum, including lackluster food and services, bad bathroom experiences, and long waits to see the art. In June, employees even went on strike because of the bad working conditions, due to not having enough staff to control the immense amount of people visiting every day.
This is not the first time something valuable has been stolen from the Louvre. The most well-known robbery was of the Mona Lisa in 1911, which was found two years later in Florence. This event has caused questions on the security of the museum, considering how bizarre it is that this happened in daylight, in one of the most famous museums in the world. Independent, states that the Louvre has still not revealed if they have some sort of tracking devices on the items, due to the ongoing investigation.
Ideally, the items will manage to make it back to the museum in some salvageable condition. Until then, the world will be on edge hoping that the jewels return to the right hands.
