WORLD'S MOST BRAZEN HEISTS

From jewels to cash and art, nothing was off limits for these master thieves

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LOUVRE JEWELS

In less than eight minutes, four brazen bandits managed to steal eight historical jewels worth more than $154 million from one of the world's most secure museums, the Louvre, in Paris.

On the morning of October 19, 2025, the gang of robbers dressed as construction workers and broke into the Apollo Gallery, which houses the French crown jewels, using an extendible ladder attached to a truck, shocking the morning crowd of tourists.

Curt Clark, an American tourist who was in the Louvre at the time recalls thinking the robbery was a terrorist attack while being escorted out of the building.

"Apparently, they came up, went in with small hand chainsaws, got what they wanted, came down the ladder, got on motorcycles and took off," he told News Center Maine.

While the jewels have not been recovered, and could potentially never be found, French police have arrested the four men believed to have carried out the “audacious” heist. The suspects, who were identified through DNA testing, are being held on remand as the investigation continues.

The heist also revealed just how inadequate the museum's security system was at the time of the crime. According to French newspaper Liberation, the museum's password for the CCTV system was “Louvre”.

A 2015 security audit also noted the museum's security technology was so old, it should have been in a museum of its own.