On the morning of October 19, 2025, the largest and most famous art museum in the world was robbed. Four thieves broke into the Louvre’s closed-off Apollo gallery, home of the French Crown Jewels, and stole eight historic relics.
This heist took only seven minutes.
Seven minutes to get in, grab the jewels, and get out.
Seven minutes was not nearly enough time for anyone to stop them.
9:30 AM, just thirty minutes after the Louvre opened its doors, the four thieves put their plan into action. After they climbed up an electric ladder, or furniture lift, and cut a hole in the window of the second floor using power tools, an alarm did sound. Although many centers of authority were notified over the course of these seven minutes, none of them took action in time to catch the robbers. The alarm alerted the staff in the security control room and one of them sent a radio call, signaling the command center that there was a break in. The command center quickly ordered the security guards to immediately start evacuating the Louvre visitors and enact crowd safety measures.
The men disguised as renovation workers, paired with the use of a vehicle-operated furniture lift, commonly seen around Paris transporting furniture into apartments, completely lowered the suspicions of anyone who saw them that morning. Two men entered the Louvre and two stayed on watch. Once two of the 4 burglars entered the Apollo Gallery, they threatened the guards, who then fled the scene, cut a clean hole into glass cases, and swiftly grabbed nine treasured jewels. They made their retreat back down to the ground and raced to their motorbikes, where their accomplices waited for them. In their rush, they dropped the crown of Empress Eugénie, Napoleon III’s wife. By 9:37 AM, the thieves successfully escaped with eight pieces of jewelry, estimated at a total of $102 million dollars.
Freshman Gia La Forgia, when asked her thoughts on the Louvre heist, expressed that, “It must have taken a lot of time and planning to execute this clever burglary. I am both surprised and impressed that they were able to pull this off.”
This massive robbery left the French government embarrassed and the French people questioning their faith in French authorities. In broad daylight, four men were able to rob the most visited art museum in the world, without anybody coming close to catching them. An important security camera outside the Apollo Gallery was completely facing the wrong way! There were many security points of weakness such as this that allowed this heist to unfold in the interest of the burglars. Countless mistakes that allowed this thievery to unfold made France’s image now poor to both surrounding countries and to their own citizens. Junior Maddy Portsmore wonders, “Why weren’t the security measures enough to manage this attack, and is there anything being done to improve the Louvre’s security in the future?” That is a fair question that both Portsmore and all of France seeks the answer to.
However, as of October 25, two suspects have been arrested. Although the identities of these men still remain hidden from the public, what is known is that they are both in their thirties and both have prior convictions involving jewel robberies. One of the men was caught a mere 40 minutes before his plane left in his attempt to flee to Algeria; the other was apprehended before he was able to travel to Mali, West Africa. According to NBC News, the police can normally only detain suspects without a charge for 48 hours, but for major crime investigations like this one, they are permitted to hold them for up to 96 hours. Luckily, the arrest of these suspects enables the police to search their homes and investigate their cellphone data in hopes of finding any evidence linking them to the crime.
Until then, the people of France wait and hope that these criminals will be found, put to justice, and their jewels safely returned to one of France’s most visited tourist attractions, the Louvre.
