Thieves carried out a daring robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris on October 19, 2025.

They stole eight royal jewels from the Galerie d’Apollon, where France’s crown jewels were displayed. The robbery took place around 9:30 AM, soon after the museum opened. The suspects wore yellow construction vests, hard hats, and dust masks to blend in with maintenance crews working nearby. They arrived in a white truck equipped with a lift, which they used to reach a first-floor window.

Once inside, they broke display cases with power tools and removed the jewels in under ten minutes. They left through the same window and escaped on black motor scooters waiting outside.

The stolen pieces include an emerald necklace that once belonged to Empress Marie-Louise, a diamond bow brooch from Empress Eugenie, and several sapphire items once worn by Queen Marie-Amelie. One crown was dropped during the escape and later recovered, though it was damaged.

The collection’s total value is estimated at over $80 million. Police released mugshots of the suspects a week later. The images show two men in their thirties and a woman in her late twenties, all with short hair and blank expressions. They were taken into custody during raids in Paris and Marseilles.

Investigators believe at least two other suspects are still on the loose.

French officials confirmed that several cameras inside the gallery were offline during the break-in. The culture minister of France called the theft “a result of outdated security systems and human error”. The Louvre reopened two days later. Security has since been tightened, and the search for the missing jewels continues.