21.10.2025
French prosecutors have estimated that the value of several pieces of Napoleonic jewelry stolen in broad day light from Louvre Jewelry Museum on Sunday is in the region of $102m.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told broadcaster RTL the museum’s curator had estimated the losses at that amount, but the thieves would not earn the equivalent if they had “the very bad idea of melting down these jewels”.
Some 60 investigators are hunting for the group that committed the daring daylight robbery.
Crime gangs about Europe are increasingly robbing valuable jewels and gold from cash-needy museums like the Louvre, but while law enforcement often catches the thieves, they struggle to recover the priceless goods, police and art experts say.
“If I steal a Van Gogh, it’s a Van Gogh. I can’t dispose of it through any other channel than an illicit art market,” said Marc Balcells, a Barcelona-based expert in crimes against cultural heritage.
“But when I am stealing … jewelry, I can move it through an illicit market as precious stones.”
The brazen heist of crown jewels from the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, has been decried by some as a national humiliation and sparked security checks across France’s multitude of cultural sites.
“If you target the Louvre, the most important museum in the world, and then get away with the French crown jewels, something was wrong with security,” said art investigator Arthur Brand.
“It’s one of the biggest manhunts in French history.”
Officials at the Louvre, home to artworks such as the Mona Lisa, had in fact already sounded the alarm about lack of investment. Agency reports
$102m worth of jewelry gone in broad day light.