The Louvre Museum in Paris has been closed for a day after a robbery took place on Sunday morning. According to French media, two to four masked men accessed the building from the Seine river side of the museum, where repairs were taking place. The robbery took 7 minutes, according to a police chief who spoke to Le Parisien.
Nine items of jewellery are missing from the Napoleon and Empress Josephine’s jewellery collection, including a necklace, a brooch, a tiara, and more. One of the jewels, believed to be Empress Eugenie's crown, was found outside the museum.
The robbers are said to have parked on T-max scooter before entering the building from the side of the Seine River. They allegedly used a freight elevator to reach the room where the specific collection of jewellery was kept.
The robbers used a cherry picker mounted on a truck to directly access Apollo's gallery. They then entered by forcing the windows open with small chainsaws, Paris Match reported.
Two men had reportedly entered the building while a third remained outside. The thieves are said to have escaped on a motor scooter.
The area has been evacuated, and traffic around the Louvre Pyramid has been blocked. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said "Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and I'm hopeful." He also said that it is not impossible that the perpetrators could be foreigners.
Nuñez called the crime a "major robbery" carried out by "a clearly experienced team which had carried out reconnaissance and acted very quickly."
The Interior minister also said that video and material items were recovered. "We have an escape route, videos, and abandoned objects. Everything is being done to find the perpetrators as quickly as possible," he said.
France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on X that there were no reported injuries and that police are investigating the site.
A statement from the Louvre on social media said that they will remain closed for the rest of the day for “exceptional reasons.”