By Julia and Sarah L G10

The great louvre heist: Crime meets culture

On the 19th of October 2025 thieves who were disguised as construction workers stole jewels valued roughly €88 million from the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre (Paris, France). The famous museum was closed from October 19. 2025–October 22. 2025, which primarily impacted tourists and highlighted a major security issue at the museum.

At roughly 9:30am (local time), shortly after the museum was opened for visitors, The thieves used a ladder from a stolen vehicle, to get access to the second floor balcony to enter the museum. Then cutting the window with a disc cutter or angle grinder. French police say the thieves were inside the museum for 40 minutes, escaping the scene on scooters outside the building.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati described the masked robbers as seemingly being “experienced” with a well-prepared plan.

Investigators are studying CCTV footage from the escape route and searching for 4 suspects. One witness described the scene at the museum as “total panic” as the museum was being evacuated.

According to the authorities, there were eight items taken from the museum which were all from the 19th Century, which once belonged to the French royalty or Imperial Rulers. These jewels are covered in thousand of diamonds and other gems. Two of the stolen items were found later near the museum, damaged from being dropped. These stolen jewels were described as “Priceless and “of immeasurable heritage value” from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. Theories were that the thieves were going to break and melt down the pieces, as it would be complex to sell the Jewels if they were still intact.  

A sentence from a BBC article has stated, “The theft has caused a political outcry in France, with Macron calling the raid “an attack on our history”

On Wednesday night, five suspects were arrested for their involvement in the heist. BBC has said it is not clear what the role the arrested people had in the theft. 

French investigators are not giving any more details away at this moment about the suspects. But it is assumed that the gang who was involved cloud be much larger than the people who physically stole the items from the museum. 

Should the robbery have been that easy?

References

Aikman, I., & Hagan, R. (2025, October 20). Everything we know about the Louvre jewellery heist. BBC. Retrieved November 2, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7nrlkg0zxo

Armstrong, K. (2025, October 30). Five new suspects arrested over Louvre jewellery theft. BBC. Retrieved November 2, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz91jnyelq2o

[Louvre Gallery of Apollo]. (2025, October 20). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7nrlkg0zxo