Race against time: Why jewellery stolen in Paris Louvre museum heist may never be found
From Empress Eugenie's bodice bow to crowns adorned with pearls and diamonds, the thieves stole eight royal pieces from the Louvre on Sunday.
The robbers who stole historic royal jewellery from Paris's Louvre museum and the French government are both racing against time — the former to sell the timepieces, and the latter to retrieve the stolen jewels.
Robbers carried out the jewellery theft, estimated to be worth around 88 million euros ($102 million), within minutes in broad daylight. Every single stolen piece is a representative of the pinnacle of the 19th-century “haute joaillerie" (fine jewellery), The Associated Press reported.
For the royals, they were more than decoration; for the public, they were France's cultural heritage; and for the nation itself, they were political statements of wealth, power, and cultural significance.
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On Wednesday, the Louvre reopened for the first time since the heist on Sunday morning. However, the Apollo Gallery, where the robbery took place, remained shut.
Louvre Heist: Key Facts
- What was stolen: Eight pieces, which were part of a collection whose crown jewels date back to the 16th century, when King Francis I declared that they belonged to France, were stolen from the Louvre. The thieves stole two crowns, or diadems.
One was given to Empress Eugenie by Emperor Napoleon III in 1853 to celebrate their wedding. It is adorned with over 200 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds.
The second, a starry sapphire-and-diamond headpiece.
Other stolen items include a necklace and a single earring worn by Queen Marie-Amelie, among others, a necklace of dozens of emeralds and over 1,000 diamonds that were gifted by Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, in 1810.
Their matching earrings were also taken by the robbers.
They also swept off a reliquary brooch, a large bodice bow worn by Empress Eugenie, both of which were diamond-encrusted.
- Not stolen, but damaged crown: The thieves left behind a hefty piece, which would have been their ninth item, and it was damaged. The crown, adorned with gold eagles, 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, was worn by Empress Eugenie.
- How was Louvre robbed: The Paris prosecutor's office said that four suspected robbers split into pairs of two, with two people in a truck parked with an extendable ladder. The thieves then climbed up to the Galerie d'Apollon, and two others piloted the motorbikes, which they used to escape from the scene.
The prosecutor's office added that two men wearing bright yellow jackets broke into the gallery at 9:34 am and left the room at 9:38 am, before fleeing the scene on the motorbikes.
- What robbers left behind: Items in the crown jewel collection, which, before the heist, included 23 jewels, were left untouched. Other remaining items included a plum-sized Regent, a white diamond that is said to be the largest of its kind in Europe.
Jewels could be gone forever
Experts have said that while authorities scramble to nab the thieves and recover the jewels, the sparkling artefacts of a French culture are likely being dismantled and sold off in a rush as single pieces that may or may not be identifiable as part of the French crown jewels.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, a major European diamond jeweller, said, "It is extremely unlikely these jewels will ever be retrieved and seen again."
"If these gems are broken up and sold off, they will, in effect, vanish from history and be lost to the world forever," Kormind was quoted as saying by AP.
A shame, and a race against time
Conservative lawmaker Maxime Michelet said on Tuesday in the Parliament that the stolen jewels were "family souvenirs that have been taken from the French, highlighting the emotional loss that has come with the monetary loss.
She questioned the government about the security arrangements at the Louvre and other cultural sites.
Citing the damaged crown of Empress Eugenie, Michelet said the crown, first stolen, then dropped, and found broken in the gutter, "has become the symbol of the decline of a nation that used to be so admired".
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"It is shameful for our country, incapable of guaranteeing the security of the world’s largest museum," Michelet added.
This was not the first heist at Louvre in recent years. However, this one stood out because of its speed and almost cinematic quality of events.
A theft investigator said that the romance of such a theft is mostly a creation of the show business. Christopher A Marinello, a lawyer with Art Recovery International, said he's never seen a "theft-to-order" by some shadowy secret collector.
"These criminals are just looking to steal whatever they can," he said.
“They chose this room because it was close to a window. They chose these jewels because they figured that they could break them apart, take out the settings, take out the diamonds and the sapphires and the emeralds" overseas to "a dodgy dealer that’s willing to recut them and no one would ever know what they did," Marinello added.
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Both the French authorities hunting the robbers and the thieves themselves, who will have a hard time finding buyers for the stolen royal pieces, are now racing against time.
Dutch art sleuth Arthur Brand said, "Nobody will touch these objects. They are too famous. It's too hot. If you get caught, you will end up in prison. You cannot sell them, you cannot leave them to your children."
Louvre's embarrassments
The Louvre has been embroiled with issues of overcrowding and age-old facilities, and the latest robbery has added to the list of embarrassments.
In 2014, activists threw a can of soup at the Mona Lisa. In June, the museum's staff brought it to a halt amid its strike over mass tourism.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the Mona Lisa, which was stolen by a former museum worker in 1911 and recovered two years later, will get its own room under a major renovation at the Louvre.
(with AP inputs)
