LONDON — Because the alarms sounded on the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, 4 suspects took off on two motorbikes, winding their manner by means of central Paris, allegedly carrying with them a haul of “priceless” jewellery as soon as worn by queens and royals.
The suspects have been final seen dashing southeast on Freeway A6 out of Paris and within the route of Lyon, in response to investigators.
About 24 hours after the brazen theft of a few of the most recognizable items of glittering French heritage, which have been taken throughout daytime from the world’s most-visited museum, a nationwide manhunt and investigation are in full swing, in response to state and legislation enforcement officers.
“The theft dedicated on the Louvre is an assault on a heritage that we cherish as a result of it’s our historical past,” President Emmanuel Macron stated on social media on Sunday.
Vacationers and guests stroll in entrance of the Louvre Museum subsequent to French cops after the museum was closed following a theft, in Paris on Oct. 19, 2025.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP through Getty Photos
He and different French officers vowed that the items can be returned and the suspects apprehended. The museum closed on Sunday morning as police swarmed the world searching for suspects and proof.
“Following yesterday’s theft on the Louvre, the museum regrets to tell you that it’ll stay closed to the general public at the moment,” officers stated in an replace on social media on Monday. “Guests who’ve already booked tickets might be refunded.”
Because the investigation to determine the culprits continued, a disaster assembly passed off on the Inside Ministry that included Tradition Minister Rachida Dati as properly with the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB), the particular police unit of the Ministry of Inside that investigates main artwork thefts, authorities stated.
7 minutes, out and in, authorities say
The suspects arrived in pairs, with two in a truck and two driving motorbikes, authorities stated on Sunday. The truck was geared up with a shifting ladder, a “cellular freight elevator” of the kind metropolis furnishings movers generally use, Paris police stated.
The suspects allegedly parked the truck on a street that runs alongside the aspect of the museum, close to the Seine, police stated.
Cops search for clues by a basket carry utilized by thieves Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 on the Louvre museum in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
They have been dressed as development employees, sporting yellow and orange vests, police stated. The thieves took the time to safe the world close to the truck by putting orange development cones round it, police stated.
Two of the thieves then used the ladder to stand up to the second ground, climbing onto a skinny balcony with a steel railing outdoors the museum’s Apollo Gallery, the place a few of the French crown jewels have been saved, in response to police.
Pedestrians stroll on Quai Francois Mitterrand as French cops stand subsequent to a furnishings elevator utilized by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, in Paris on October 19, 2025.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP through Getty Photos
As soon as they’d used an angle grinder to open the window, they clambered by means of it, police stated. Their entrance triggered the alarm, which was nonetheless sounding after they left, the museum stated in a press release.
“Inside, they then smashed two show circumstances, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ utilizing the angle grinder and stole quite a few items of high-value jewellery,” police stated.
A member of a forensic staff inspects a window believed to have been utilized in what the French Inside Ministry stated was a theft on the Louvre museum throughout which jewelry was stolen, in Paris, France, Oct. 19, 2025.
Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
After they left by means of the identical window about seven minutes later, they’d with them eight items of jewellery of “inestimable” worth, as France’s inside minister described them on Sunday. Different officers, together with Rachida Dati, the tradition minister, described them to French media as “priceless.”
In accordance with the French Ministry of Tradition, among the many gadgets stolen was a diadem, or crown, from the gathering of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from the gathering of Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second spouse; and a big bow brooch from Empress Eugenie’s bodice.
Police imagine the staff of bandits made some errors, though they conceded that the heist appeared properly deliberate. One of many errors the thieves made was both by chance dropping or abandoning one of many valuable items, Empress Eugenie’s pearl tiara, which, in response to the Louvre, consists of 212 pearls and almost 2,000 diamonds.
The Eugenie crown was left behind with a blanket, the 2 angle grinder, a walkie talkie, gloves, gasoline and blowtorch, investigators stated.
Investigators are combing by means of safety video to glean any details about the thieves, officers stated. The safety cameras captured the 4 robbers making an attempt to set fireplace to the cellular freight elevator used within the heist earlier than leaping on their motorbikes and fleeing, in response to the Paris Prosecutor’s Workplace.
A ‘whole’ investigation is underway
Officers on the museum stated in a press release that an investigation had been launched into the “organized theft and felony conspiracy to commit against the law.”
The CGI Group, an Israeli safety agency, has been introduced in to by the Louvre and with permission from the Tradition Ministry to work on the case, investigators stated. The CGI Group gained notoriety in 2019 when it helped clear up the Dresden Inexperienced Vault housebreaking, the place jewellery and diamonds value greater than $130 million have been stolen from the Dresden Citadel in Germany.
A police officer blocks an entry to the Louvre museum after a theft Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, instructed an area TV station on Sunday that about 60 investigators have been engaged on the case, exhibiting “whole willpower” to seek out these accountable.
As of Monday morning, police had not but stated whether or not they had any leads on the doable identities of the suspects.
Officers stated the suspects appeared to have been professionals. Beccuau stated officers hadn’t dominated out doable international involvement, but additionally that investigators have been treating it as a home case in the mean time.
“Every part is being performed to apprehend the perpetrators of this unacceptable act as rapidly as doable,” Laurent Nunez, the inside minister, stated on Sunday.
ABC Information’ Will Gretsky, Somayeh Malekian, Hugo Leenhardt, Camilla Alcini, Victoria Beaule, Dragana Jovanovic and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
