Paris launches huge manhunt after priceless Napoleonic jewels stolen from the Louvre as the Mail reveals the audacious daylight raid minute-by-minute

Paris has launched a massive manhunt after daring thieves pulled off a jaw-dropping heist at the Louvre, stealing nine of the museum’s most priceless treasures, including a £100 million crown, in just seven minutes.

While a gang of ‘highly organized criminals’ walked out of the world’s most visited museum around 9.30am local time on Sunday, thousands of tourists also had an enjoyable day at the museum.

Wearing masks and using grinders, the team parked their scooters outside the Apollo Gallery (Galerie d’Apollon), which houses jewels belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, his wife Josephine, and later Emperors and Empresses.

He then extended a freight elevator resembling a giant staircase from the back of a flatbed truck and installed it in the 17th century, when King Louis XIV built it. They pressed it against the wall of the gallery opened by Louis.

Construction was taking place on the targeted wing of the Louvre on the Seine River side of the museum when the gang attacked. Employees had previously protested the lack of staff at the museum in June.

After running to the top of the stairs, they drilled through the museum’s exterior window using an angle grinder before climbing into the Salle 705 exhibition room.

According to Le Parisien, in a seven-minute robbery, two display cases were opened and nine pieces of the 23-piece Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection were stolen.

Among the treasures, it is decorated with thousands of diamonds and emeralds and is decorated with the treasures of III. There was also the Crown of Eugénie, worn by Napoleon’s empress consort Eugénie, which was later found thrown into pieces and thrown under a window of the Louvre.

Officers rushed to the scene and were filmed examining the empty area following the mass evacuation.

The gang is also believed to have stolen a priceless necklace and brooch from Salle 705.

They had left the Louvre at 9.40am and were disappearing into the Paris morning on their scooters, just as the police started arriving.

Once there, officers found the massive elevator abandoned in front of the museum’s historic stone walls.

Other photos showed what appeared to be an angle grinder in the front seat of a truck parked outside the Louvre and surrounded by police tape.

Meanwhile, thousands of panicked tourists were trapped in the iconic building as they were hastily evacuated before being escorted through the city streets on a busy day in the French capital.

Forensic teams were later seen outside the Louvre examining the elevator and the truck it was on.

The historic Crown of Eugénie, presented to the empress consort in 1855, was sold at auction for $13.5 million (£10 million) in 1988 and donated to the Louvre four years later. Expert Josie Goodbody told the Daily Mail it is now worth tens of millions of dollars.

Salle 705 also includes Eugenie’s diamond bodice bow, but it is not yet known whether this has been received.

Among the treasures was the Crown of Eugénie, which was found thrown and torn into pieces under a window of the Louvre.

In the pictures, it is believed that the disc cutter in a truck at the scene of the robbery was used to cut the exterior window of the museum.

According to Le Parisien, the Regent diamond, considered by many to be the most beautiful in the world and strangely not stolen, is located here.

After being crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804, Napoleon and Josephine amassed one of the most impressive collections of jewelry ever known.

Many of the pieces were stolen from the royal family during the French Revolution, while others were taken from across the empire as the country rapidly expanded under the emperor’s rule.

With its iconic pyramid entrance, the Louvre also houses Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th-century masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed that an investigation has been launched into a ‘criminal conspiracy to commit theft and crime’ by an organized gang.

The investigation is carried out by the Anti-Banditry Brigade (BRB) of the Judicial Police and the Central Office for Combating Cultural Objects Smuggling.

Mr Nuñez said: ‘It was necessary to close the Louvre to visitors, primarily to preserve traces and clues so that the investigators could work calmly. ‘The evacuation of the public took place without incident.’

He added: ‘We can’t prevent everything. There is a major security gap in French museums.

Forensic teams examine a window leading to the Apollo Gallery believed to have been punctured with a disc cutter

Tourists were seen being escorted out of the Louvre on Sunday after thieves arrived on scooters to steal priceless artifacts in a daring heist

‘Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible and I remain hopeful.’

The lively Quai François-Mitterand, which runs along the Louvre buildings, was closed to traffic until 16:00 on Sunday.

The Élysée Palace said President Emmanuel Macron was ‘informed in real time about the situation’.

Those who steal historic art or jewelry often work for dealers who cannot sell the priceless items on the black market.

Instead, the treasures will be kept secret and enjoyed by the master criminal who carried out the raid.

French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati said: ‘I am here with the museum staff and the police.’

He confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched and detectives were liaising with museum staff.

According to Ms Dati, no one was injured during the raids, while a Louvre spokesman confirmed that the museum was closed for ‘exceptional reasons’.

Panicked visitors try to exit iconic museum after robbery

Photograph of forensic teams outside the Louvre in the hours after the robbery

On June 16, Louvre staff staged a protest over staff shortages and overcrowding at the museum.

The demonstration delayed the opening of the tourist attraction until the afternoon and caused queues of thousands of people to form outside the museum.

Thefts of high-end art are not uncommon in Paris, including the Louvre, which opened in 1793 after serving as a palace since the late 12th century.

The most famous one occurred with the acquisition of the Mona Lisa in 1911, causing international outrage.

Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world’s most popular art museum, hid the painting in a closet overnight to retrieve it.

It was seized two years later when he tried to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.

Before Sunday’s brazen heist, the last theft at the Louvre took place in 1998, when 19th-century artist Camille Corot’s Le Chemin de Sevres (The Road to Sevres) was ripped from the wall without anyone noticing. It remains incomplete to this day.

The latest raid comes despite authorities regularly promising to increase security at several galleries in the city.

Photos taken after the theft show that a window of the Louvre was destroyed

Police surrounded the tourist attraction on Sunday after it was reported that jewels previously belonging to Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte were stolen from the museum

Axe-wielding thieves targeted an exhibition of miniature objects at the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris on November 20, 2024.

His haul included seven very valuable snuff boxes, two of which were lent by the British Crown.

The daylight raid led to an insurance payout of more than £3 million to the Royal Collection Trust.

In 2017, three art thieves were jailed for up to eight years for stealing five masterpieces worth nearly £100 million from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

In a theft incident that occurred in May 2010, works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were lost from the same gallery.