Thieves strike Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight, steal Napoleonic jewels in 4 minutes

In a lightning-fast, four-minute strike inside the world’s most-visited museum, thieves on Sunday executed one of the most audacious art heists in recent French history, stealing jewels linked to Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie from the Louvre's famed Galerie d’Apollon.

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According to officials, the intruders used a basket lift to reach a window on the Seine-facing facade of the museum around 9:30 am, while thousands of tourists filled the corridors. Cutting through the panes with a disc cutter, they smashed display cases containing the French Crown Jewels and fled the scene with nine priceless objects from a 23-piece collection tied to the Napoleonic era.

The operation was carried out “without violence", Culture Minister Rachida Dati told TF1 television, describing the thieves as “professionals.” One object — reportedly the emerald-studded crown of Empress Eugénie, adorned with gold, diamonds, and sculpted eagles-was later recovered just outside the museum's walls, damaged but intact.

Images from the scene showed bewildered visitors being evacuated from under the museum's glass pyramid as officers sealed the area and closed nearby streets along the Seine. A lift braced to the riverfront construction zone - now a key focus of investigators-appeared to have provided the thieves an extraordinary point of entry into the Denon wing.

The Louvre, already straining under the weight of record crowds and staffing shortages, was thrust into crisis. Employees have for months raised concerns about security understaffing and overcrowded galleries, issues that led to a partial shutdown during a staff walkout in June.

"The theft occurred at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities -construction, visitor congestion, and limited oversight," a museum union representative said, speaking anonymously.