Moment ‘thief in a high-viz vest’ breaks into glass cabinet at the Louvre during seven-minute daylight raid: Police hunting for gang of criminals after priceless Napoleonic jewels stolen

One of the suspected thieves who launched a jaw-dropping robbery at the Louvre has been filmed wearing a hi-viz vest and entering a glass cabinet and looting priceless jewels that once belonged to Napoleon and his family.

While thousands of tourists were having an enjoyable day in Paris, a gang of ‘highly organized criminals’ broke out of the world’s most visited museum at around 9.30am local time on Sunday.

Masked men using angle grinders launched a daring raid in which they stole nine of the museum’s most priceless treasures, including a £100 million crown, in just seven minutes.

Shocking footage broadcast by French broadcaster BFM shows one of the gang disguised as a construction worker, wearing a yellow hi-viz vest, and brazenly opening a locker.

The group targeted a wing of the Louvre on the banks of the Seine River, where construction work was ongoing, and pushed a ladder-like freight elevator from the back of a flatbed truck and leaned it against the gallery wall.

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 local reports, in the whirlwind robbery, the group hastily opened two display cases and squeezed in nine pieces of the 23-piece Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said two of the nine stolen items were recovered shortly after the gang fled the scene after apparently falling and being damaged.

Suspected thief filmed as group raids priceless jewels once belonged to Napoleon and his family

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

The Louvre, the world’s most visited art museum in the heart of the French capital, was quickly quarantined as politicians and detectives descended on the crime scene.

Mr. Nuñez said two thieves arrived on Yamaha Tmax scooters, while two other thieves waited in the back of a flatbed truck with an extendable ladder.

‘The window was cut using a hand-held disc cutter,’ he said, adding that the group even used a chainsaw to break into the display cases.

The French Ministry of Culture said that the emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave to his wife, Empress Marie Louise, was among the “priceless cultural heritage objects” stolen during the raid.

Created by King Louis XIV, who identified himself with the sun god Apollo, the opulent Galerie d’Apollon is home to a wealth of priceless jewels.

Among these is the Crown of Eugénie, which was found broken by thieves and thrown under the Louvre window.

The Second Empire piece, made in 1855, is adorned with thousands of diamonds and emeralds. It was named after III in 1853. It was named after Eugénie de Montijo, who became Empress of the French after her marriage to Napoleon.

Napoleon III’s father was Louis Bonarparte, the younger brother of the more famous Napoleon I, or Napoleon Bonaparte.

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

The group removed a ladder-like freight elevator from the back of a flatbed truck and leaned it against the gallery wall.

Inspectors seen here this afternoon after the Louvre was placed on lockdown

Forensic teams were seen collecting evidence from the elevator used by the robbers.

Police removed the elevator that the robbers used to enter the Louvre from the scene

Officers photographed examining empty area outside Louvre following mass evacuation

While many of the pieces were stolen from the Crown during the French Revolution, others were collected from across the Empire.

Mr Nunez confirmed that an investigation had been launched into ‘criminal conspiracy to commit theft and crime’ by a ‘highly organized criminal gang’.

Beyond Eugénie’s tiara, items stolen included another tiara, earrings and a brooch.

The investigation is carried out by the Judicial Police’s Anti-Banditry Brigade (BRB) 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.’

Mr Nuñez added: ‘We can’t block everything. There is a major security gap in French museums. Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible and I remain hopeful.’

He stated that CCTV footage had been examined and that ‘it was not impossible that the perpetrators were foreigners’, adding: ‘The gang was experienced and it was clear that they had been monitoring the area before the operation.’

One of the mopeds used by the criminals was later found abandoned in a nearby street.

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

Saying that no one was injured during the raids, the Louvre spokesman confirmed that the museum was closed for ‘exceptional reasons’.

Police gathered at the spiral staircase of the Louvre Pyramid after the theft of Napoleonic collection jewelery from the museum

A member of the forensic team examines a window believed to have been used in what the French Interior Ministry said was a robbery at the Louvre Museum.

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.

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

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

The most notorious theft at the Louvre occurred in 1911, when Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th-century Mona Lisa was stolen, causing international outrage.

Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world’s most visited 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.

The latest raid comes despite authorities regularly promising to increase security at numerous galleries in Paris.

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

Works by Picasso and Matisse were also lost in a theft incident that occurred in May 2010.

The Louvre welcomed approximately nine million visitors in 2024; 80 percent of them were foreigners; Among them, hundreds of thousands came from the United Kingdom.

Those who steal historical works of art often work at the behest of dealers who are unable to sell them on the black market.

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