By Agencies – published by CNA and AFP – published by Yahoo!News
Paris – Chainsaw-wielding robbers broke into the Louvre in Paris on Sunday (Oct. 19) and made away with priceless jewellery, leading the world’s most visited museum to close for the day.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called it a “major robbery”. He said on France Inter that individuals “entered from the outside using a basket lift”, stole jewels of “inestimable value”, and that the operation “lasted seven minutes”.
The thieves stole nine pieces from the jewellery collection of Napoleon and the Empress, according to French Daily Le Parisien.
A precise list of what was stolen is being drawn up.
Beyond their commercial value, the ministry says the items have an incalculable historical and cultural value.
They arrived between 9.30 and 9.40 a.m. (2.30 and 2.40 p.m. in Thailand) and stole jewellery, a source following the case said, adding its value was still being estimated.
A separate police source said the robbers had drawn up on a scooter armed with small chainsaws and used a goods lift to reach the room they were targeting.
France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati earlier on Sunday said no injuries were reported.
The Louvre said on X it was closing its doors for the day “for exceptional reasons”.
Video from the scene showed chaotic crowds of tourists as police closed the museum’s gates and nearby roads leading past the palace complex.
The seat of French kings until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s, the Louvre is regularly listed as the world’s most visited museum.
It has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence – an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.
In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armour were stolen from the Louvre and only recovered nearly four decades later. The museum’s collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting that continues to spark restitution debates today.
The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting – from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters. Its star attractions include the Mona Lisa, as well as the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The Galerie d’Apollon, where Sunday’s theft reportedly took place, displays a selection of the French Crown Jewels.
The museum can draw up to 30,000 visitors a day.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page – A goods lift (right) used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on Oct. 19, 2025. Photo: AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff and published by CNA
First insert – Police stand near the pyramid of the Louvre museum after reports of a robbery, in Paris, France, on Oct 19, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes and published by CNA
Second insert – French police officers stand next to a goods lift used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on Oct 9, 2025. Photo: AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff and published by CNA
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