Thieves who broke into the Louvre on Sunday and made off with eight pieces of priceless Napoleonic jewellery in broad daylight were likely motivated by the material value of the gems and metals rather than their historical significance, according to experts in art crime. The perpetrators escaped on scooters through Paris traffic, abandoning a hugely valuable crown once owned by Napoleon III's wife by the roadside.
Christopher A Marinello, a leading expert in the recovery of stolen works of art, said the heist fit a pattern of smash-and-grab thefts that have emerged over the past decade in Germany, Britain and the US. “You may ask why thieves who want to steal expensive jewellery are breaking into a world-famous museum rather than a Cartier store,” he said. “The answer is simple: it’s because these days a Cartier store is better protected.”
Marinello noted that museums have become increasingly vulnerable, partly because they are public-facing institutions in historic buildings and partly because of budget cuts since Covid. “If thieves can get into the Louvre, it shows how vulnerable our institutions have become. This is a horrible time to be a museum,” he said. He pointed to similar recent thefts, including the 2019 burglary at Dresden’s Green Vault Museum, the theft of a gold toilet from Blenheim Palace the same year, and the 2017 heist of a large gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum.
The stolen items include necklaces made up of eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, and the tiara of Empress Eugénie featuring nearly 2,000 diamonds. Experts say the thieves would struggle to sell such recognisable pieces. “There’s no way to sell something as immediately identifiable as the Louvre’s jewels on the licit market,” said Lynda Albertson of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art. “They would be immediately recognised, especially given the Ministry of Culture has released images of the pieces.”
Art detective Arthur Brand dismissed the idea that the theft was ordered in advance, as has been suggested in some cases. “Stolen to order is something from the Hollywood movies,” he said. “Nobody would touch this. It’s all around the world and in all the newspapers.” Experts believe the gold and precious stones will likely be melted down, following a mantra of “smash, grab, and melt it down as quickly as possible”.
