LONDON — Because the alarms sounded on the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, 4 suspects took off on two motorbikes, winding their means by means of central Paris, allegedly carrying with them a haul of “priceless” jewellery as soon as worn by queens and manufactured from sapphires, diamonds and emeralds.
They have not but been discovered.
About 24 hours after the brazen theft of a few of the most recognizable items of glittering French heritage, which had been taken throughout daylight from the world’s most-visited museum, a manhunt and investigation are in full swing, based on state and regulation 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 said on social media on Sunday.
Vacationers and guests stroll in entrance of the Louvre Museum subsequent to French law enforcement officials 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 could be returned and the suspects apprehended. The museum closed on Sunday morning as police swarmed the world in the hunt for suspects and proof.
“Following yesterday’s theft on the Louvre, the museum regrets to tell you that it’s going to stay closed to the general public right this moment,” officers mentioned in an replace on social media on Monday. “Guests who’ve already booked tickets shall be refunded.”
7 minutes, out and in, authorities say
The suspects arrived in pairs, with two in a truck and two driving motorbikes, authorities mentioned on Sunday. The truck was outfitted with a shifting ladder, a “cellular freight elevator” of the kind metropolis furnishings movers typically use, Paris police mentioned.
The suspects allegedly parked the truck on a street that runs alongside the aspect of the museum, close to the Seine, police mentioned.
Law enforcement officials search for clues by a basket raise utilized by thieves Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 on the Louvre museum in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
They had been carrying yellow vests, dressed as building employees could be, police mentioned. They took the time to safe the world close to the truck by putting orange building cones round it, police mentioned.
They then used the ladder to stand up to the second flooring, climbing onto a skinny balcony with a steel railing exterior the museum’s Apollo Gallery, the place a few of the French crown jewels had been saved, based on police.
Pedestrians stroll on Quai Francois Mitterrand as French law enforcement officials 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 mentioned. Their entrance triggered the alarm, which was nonetheless sounding after they left, the museum mentioned in an announcement.
“Inside, they then smashed two show instances, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ utilizing the angle grinder and stole quite a few items of high-value jewellery,” police mentioned.
A member of a forensic workforce inspects a window believed to have been utilized in what the French Inside Ministry mentioned was a theft on the Louvre museum throughout which jewelry was stolen, in Paris, France, Oct. 19, 2025.
Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Once they left by means of the identical window about seven minutes later, they’d with them 9 items of jewerly 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 response to 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.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned the perpetrators tried and did not set hearth to the cellular freight elevator they used within the heist earlier than they fled the scene.
A ‘complete’ investigation is underway
Officers on the museum mentioned in a statement that an investigation had been launched into the “organized theft and legal conspiracy to commit against the law.”
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, which is able to oversee the case, tapped a specialised group of detectives, the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry, which is a part of the French Nationwide Police, to guide the investigation, based on the Louvre’s assertion.
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, advised a neighborhood TV station on Sunday that about 60 investigators had been engaged on the case, displaying “complete dedication” to seek out these accountable.
As of Monday morning, police had not but mentioned whether or not they had any leads on the doable identities of the suspects.
Officers mentioned the suspects appeared to have been professionals. Beccuau on Sunday described it as an organized crime, saying officers hadn’t dominated out doable international involvement, but in addition that investigators had been treating it as a home case in the intervening time.
“Every part is being accomplished to apprehend the perpetrators of this unacceptable act as rapidly as doable,” Laurent Nunez, the inside minister, mentioned on Sunday.
ABC Information’ Will Gretsky, Somayeh Malekian, Hugo Leenhardt, Camilla Alcini, Invoice Hutchinson, Victoria Beaule, Dragana Jovanovic and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
