🚨 THE LOUVRE HEIST: 8 ‘PRICELESS’ JEWELS GONE IN MINUTES 🚨
Thieves used a basket lift on a truck to smash into the Louvre’s second floor and escape with treasures including Marie Antoinette’s sapphire ring and a diamond tiara.

Officials call them “irreplaceable pieces of France’s soul.”
Now, Paris detectives suspect inside help in the museum’s boldest robbery since the Mona Lisa vanished.

Eight ‘priceless’ objects stolen in Louvre museum heist named – as authorities reveal details of daring raid

Intruders entered via a basket lift using a platform mounted on a lorry, breaking a window and making off with jewels that “have genuine heritage value and are, in fact, priceless,” France’s interior minister said.

Eight “priceless” objects stolen in a daring heist at the Louvre museum in Paris have been named by the French culture ministry.

The world-famous museum was forced to close on Sunday after thieves accessed a gallery containing the French Crown Jewels at around 9.30am local time.

A ninth item was stolen but recovered at the scene, the Paris prosecutor said – as an art detective told Sky News that police face “a race against time” to find the other items before they are dismantled and melted down.

The French culture ministry said the items stolen were:

• Tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense

• Necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense

• Earring, from the pair belonging to the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense

Image:The tiara (top), necklace (middle) and one earring were taken from the Queen Marie Amelie sapphire set. Pic: Louvre

• Emerald necklace from the Empress Marie Louise set

• Pair of emerald earrings from the Empress Marie Louise set

Image:Empress Marie Louise’s emerald necklace and earrings. Pic: Louvre

• Brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”

• Tiara of Empress Eugenie

• Large corsage bow brooch of Empress Eugenie.

Image:The Empress Eugenie tiara. Pic: Louvre

Image:The Empress Eugenie brooch contains 2,438 diamonds. Pic: Louvre

French publication Le Parisien previously reported that the object recovered at the museum was the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, and it was broken.

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Play Video – Louvre heist: What we know so far?

Louvre heist: What we know so far?

Authorities revealed details of the raid after the museum, which is the world’s most popular and draws up to 30,000 visitors a day, said on X that it was closing for “exceptional reasons”.

Image:Police working by a basket lift used by thieves at the Louvre museum in Paris. Pic: AP

Image:The world famous museum attracts tens of thousands of people every day. File pic: AP

Culture minister Rachida Dati said footage of the operation showed the thieves “don’t target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave”.

“No violence, very professional,” she told TF1.

How the robbery unfolded

French interior minister Laurent Nunez said the “major robbery” involved intruders entering the museum via a basket lift using a platform mounted on a lorry.

It is not clear if they brought any or all of the equipment they used with them, as construction work is taking place along the River Seine side of the sprawling building, where the break-in occurred.

Mr Nunez said: “They broke a window and went towards several display cases where they stole jewellery. These are jewels that have genuine heritage value and are, in fact, priceless.”

Image:The ceiling of the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre. Pic: Shutterstock

The interior ministry said the criminals fled on two motorbikes. No injuries have been reported.

The number of robbers has not been confirmed but Mr Nunez told France Inter that three or four thieves got into the museum.

The gang was well prepared and had scouted the venue, Mr Nunez said, adding they cut window panes “with a disc cutter” before escaping “on a TMAX”, a type of Yamaha maxi-scooter.

Forensic work is now underway and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled following the break-in, which took place between 9.30 and 9.40am (8.30-8.40am UK time).

Once in, they made for the Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo Gallery), home to a selection of the French Crown Jewels, the interior ministry said.

French daily newspaper Le Parisien, citing police, said the suspects wore hoods and were carrying “small chainsaws”.

The robbers reportedly escaped with nine pieces of jewellery, including a necklace, a brooch and a tiara from the Napoleon and French Sovereigns display cases, the newspaper reported.

Two suspects were inside while a third stayed outside, Le Parisien said.

Police face ‘a race against time’

Art detective Arthur Brand told Sky News the heist is “the theft of the decade” – adding in order to recover the “priceless” items, police will need to find the culprits in just one week.

“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” Mr Brand said. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.”

He continued: “They [the police] have a week. If they catch the thieves, the stuff might still be there. If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled. It’s a race against time.”

Image:Suspects reportedly used this window to get in. Pic: Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X: “We will recover the works and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

“Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this,” he added.

What is in the Galerie d’Appollon?

The Galerie d’Appollon is an enormous room on the upper floor of the Petite Galerie, which houses the French Crown Jewels as well as the royal collection of hardstone vessels, paintings, tapestries and medallions, the museum’s website said.

Rebuilt by Louis XIV after a fire, it is home to three historical diamonds – the Regent, one of the most famous diamonds in the world, the Sancy and the Hortensia.

At 140 carats, the Regent is exceptional in terms of size, weight and purity and when it was found in India in 1698, it was the largest known diamond at the time.

Social media users posted pictures and videos from in and outside the building, with one showing people leaving in “total panic”.

Image:The museum sits next to the River Seine. Pic: Reuters

One person on X who said they were there reported a confused-sounding scene of police “running” near the museum’s famous pyramid “and trying to enter… from glass side doors but they were locked and they could not enter”.

“Everyone inside was running and banging on glass doors to get out, but could not open. Police and military police arrived,” they added.

History of Louvre break-ins

This is not the first time thieves have targeted the museum.

In 1911, the Mona Lisa, now protected by bulletproof glass, vanished from its frame, stolen by a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat.

It was recovered two years later in Florence – an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.

In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armour were stolen – and were only recovered in 2021, nearly four decades later.

The museum’s collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting, containing 33,000 works of art, including antiquities, sculptures and paintings.

In addition to the Mona Lisa, its star attractions feature the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.