The French crown jewels taken from the Louvre

On the morning of Sunday 19 October 2025 the Louvre in Paris was open to visitors. Outside, men in work clothes raised the ladder of a furniture lift to a first-floor window of the Galerie d’Apollon, in the Denon wing. AFP reports, citing the Paris prosecutor, that two of them went in, cut the window and two display cases with angle grinders, and took the jewels. Two others waited below. All fled on scooters. The whole raid took under eight minutes, and about four of those were inside the museum. Reports differ by a minute or two.

The thieves took nine pieces from the French crown jewels. They dropped one outside: the crown of Empress Eugénie, now damaged. The French culture ministry lists the other eight as missing. They are three pieces from a sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense (a tiara, a necklace and an earring), and the emerald necklace and earrings that Napoleon I gave Empress Marie-Louise on their wedding in 1810. They also include a brooch known as the reliquary brooch, Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond diadem of 1853, and her large corsage bow of 1855. The Eugénie diadem came to the Louvre in 1992, bought at Sotheby’s Geneva for the Friends of the Louvre. The emerald set joined in 2004.

The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the Louvre estimated the damage at 88 million euros, about 102 million US dollars. AP reports that she called the loss to French heritage greater. This is a damage estimate. It is not a sale price, because no sale has been reported.

On 25 October 2025 police arrested two men: one at Charles de Gaulle airport, about to fly to Algeria, and one at home in Aubervilliers. On 29 October both were placed under formal investigation, known in French law as mis en examen. The press calls this being charged. It is not a conviction. The charges were organised-gang theft and criminal conspiracy, and both men were held. The prosecutor said they partly admitted involvement. A third man, Slimane K., and a woman, his former partner, were charged days later and both denied involvement. She was released under judicial supervision on 13 November. A fourth man, Rachid H., was charged on 28 November. The press names Abdoulaye N. and Ghelamallah A. as the two men said to have gone inside. These are accounts of their roles, not findings.

The jewels have not been found. Le Parisien reports, via Artnet, that car-park cameras in Aubervilliers show two suspects with some of the pieces about an hour after the theft. In January 2026 the prosecutor said she saw no sign that the pieces had left France. In June 2026 two suspects told the judges they were hired two or three days before and handed the loot to a client they did not name. Le Monde saw the transcripts. Their descriptions of this client do not match, and investigators have not confirmed that anyone ordered the theft. AFP reports that a parliamentary inquiry found systemic failures in the museum’s security. The Louvre’s president, Laurence des Cars, resigned in February 2026.

On 19 October 2026, a year after the robbery, AFP reported that the four men were in jail awaiting trial. No one has been convicted, and the sources give no trial date. Apart from the crown, no piece has been found, and France 24 and AFP say police appear to have run out of leads.