Louvre reopens three days after thieves stole French crown jewels

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday morning to crowds under its glass pyramid — even as France reeled from one of the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory just days earlier at the famed site.

The smash-and-grab that unfolded just 250 metres (270 yards) from the Mona Lisa has prompted a national reckoning, with some officials comparing the shock to the 2019 burning of Notre-Dame cathedral.

Hundreds queued outside as barriers came down, a visible coda to three days of forensic work, inspections and staff briefings. Tuesday’s closure was routine; the museum is normally shut that day.

But the scene of the heist — the jewel-lined Apollo Room — stayed closed.

Authorities say the gang spent less than four minutes inside the Louvre. Using a freight lift wheeled to the Seine-facing facade, the thieves forced a window, smashed two display cases and fled on motorbikes into central Paris.

Alarms drew Louvre agents to the gallery, forcing the intruders to bolt — but the theft was already done.

“We have failed,” justice minister Gerald Darmanin said, noting that the criminals were easily “able to place a freight lift on a public way” — a breach that projects “a very negative image of France”.

Eight objects were taken: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugenie’s diamond diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship.

One piece — the emerald-set imperial crown of Empress Eugenie, with more than 1,300 diamonds — was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable.

The haul is valued at about 88 million euros (£77 million) — a “spectacular” figure that fails to capture the works’ historical weight, according to prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

She warned the thieves would be unlikely to realise anything close to that figure if they took the gems from their settings or melted the metals. Many curators fear exactly this: that an object’s centuries of meaning could be pulverised into anonymous gems for the black market.

Interior minister Laurent Nunez said on Tuesday that the raid took only minutes; no arrests have been announced and the jewels remain missing.

The investigation was widening. Mr Beccuau said four people had been identified as being at the scene of the heist, with expert analysis under way and about 100 investigators mapping the crew and any accomplices.

The heist has sharpened scrutiny of the Louvre’s surveillance — and landed its president-director, Laurence des Cars, before the senate’s culture committee on Wednesday — although top officials have refused to remove her.

The events also collide with a broader museum-security overhaul announced in January by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, including a new command post and camera network the culture ministry says are now being rolled out.

The heist has serious raised questions about how far these upgrades have progressed.

Security around marquee works remains tight — the Mona Lisa peers out from behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled case — but Sunday’s theft exposed uneven protections across a collection of more than 33,000 objects.

The result, for many French, is a fresh embarrassment at the world’s most-visited museum.

The episode also hits a nerve at the world’s most-visited museum: swelling crowds and stretched staff. A June staff walkout delayed opening over overcrowding and chronic understaffing, with unions saying mass tourism left too few eyes on too many rooms and created pressure points where construction zones, freight access and visitor flows intersected.

On Wednesday, the Louvre’s other star attractions — from the Venus de Milo, to the Winged Victory of Samothrace — were open again. But the cordoned-off cases in the Apollo Room were guarded and empty.