Paris Louvre Jewels Heist

[PeterRS]

I was not sure whether this should be under "Art" or here. But given the amount of PR the heist has achieved, I think it is appropriate here. As we know, thieves broke into the Louvre on Sunday and stole a fortune in jewellery. Not just any old pieces, either. These were to all intents and purposes the royal jewels of France. Just eight pieces, but of almost incalculable value. One crown is set with 2i2 pearls and 3,000 diamonds!

The gallery from which the French crown jewels were stolen on Sunday

The general public seems to love art heists. They are crimes that involve huge sums of money and usually no one gets hurt. There is a fascination about the lowly art thief who overcomes the latest security measures to steal works of art that are often so unique they can not be sold - other than to private collectors to view in the privacy of their massively expensive mansions.

What makes the Louvre heist noteworthy is twofold. First the Louvre which must be one of the most secure store of art treasures in the world, housing as it does a host of unimaginably pricelss art like Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.But secondly, art heists from major museums and galleries are not really that uncommon. The Mona Lisa itself was stolen in 1911. It reappeared two years ater in Perugia in Italy.

The Mona Lisa on its return to Paris - Photo Reuters

Almost annually since then, museums and galleries have updated their security systems to ensure the safety of their treasures. Yet in 1964 lax security enabled thieves to get away with a bagload of precious gems from New York's National Museum of History, including one of the world's largest sapphires, the Star of India. Most seem to have been recovered but one, the Eagle Diamand, has never been found.

Called the largest theft in history, in 1990 two men dressed as police officers walked into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and walked off with art treasures then valued at US$500 million. None of the 13 stolen works has ever been recovered, and these include a rare Vermeer and three Rembrandts. The Vermeer remains the most valuable stolen painting in the world. Today only 34 works by Vermeer exist, compared to 74 attributed to him in 1866. The 2023 Vermeer Exhibition in Amsterdam drew 650,000 visitors, the largest ever attendance for an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum.

The Concert by Vermeer: the world's most valuable lost painting - Wikipedia

Better known, perhaps, is the case of two men who walked into the National Museum in Oslo in 1994 and in less than a minute walked off with the nation's best-known painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. They clearly had a sense of humour as they left in the painting's frame a note, "A thousand thanks for your poor security!" The painting was recovered there months later

There have been other relatively small thefts. One of the larger ones was at the Paris Museum of Modern Art in 2010. A man known previously as the "Spider-Man" got into the gallery without setting off any alarms and stole five masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Braque and Léger. None has ever been found.

Then in Dresden, thieves used explosives around the Green Vault Museum in 2019 and made off with US$100 million in jewels. Several pieces were damaged in the raid and three have never been recovered.

Just released this week is a movie The Mastermind about art thefts and a man tasked with finding lost artworks.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20251016-the-reason-art-heists-exploded-in-the-1970s

[BjornAgain]

I'm quite sure The Sûreté is on the case, and dusting off their finest Chief Inspector to investigate with comic aplomb.

[khaolakguy]

Inspector Clouseau?

[BjornAgain]

13 minutes ago, khaolakguy said:

Inspector Clouseau?

Si.

[PeterRS]

45 minutes ago, BjornAgain said:

Si.

I think you mean Oui! LOL

[BjornAgain]

15 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I think you mean Oui! LOL

From the cartoon series The Inspector which was part of The Pink Panther Show, when Sergeant Deux-Deux was talking to The Inspector, he always said the Spanish "Si", to which The Inspector always retaliated with, "Don't say Si, say Qui".

[a-447]

Given the apparent lack of security at the Louvre, it's a wonder there's anything left!

The stolen goods weren't even insured 

The French seem to have a cavalier attitude to the protection of its heritage. I was shocked to hear that Notre Dame didn't have a sprinkler system.

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, a-447 said:

 

The French seem to have a cavalier attitude to the protection of its heritage. I was shocked to hear that Notre Dame didn't have a sprinkler system.

this is what happens when country has too much of ancient stuff.

[tm_nyc]

Another one entirely:  A Chinese woman was arrested & charged with the theft of 6 gold nuggets worth 1.5 million euro, which were stolen from the Museum of Natural History in Paris last month.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62ez36ndp3o

[unicorn]

Well, the word "si" (without the accent as in Spanish) also means yes in French. It's actually used quite frequently, and is most commonly used as emphasis "Mais si!" (but of course!). The saddest fact about these jewel heists is that the metal will probably just be melted down for the value of the metal, and the gems sold for their value as individual gems, although, of course, their value was many times that as works of art. Stolen paintings don't have any value, since they could never be sold or displayed (although I suppose a selfish SOB could keep it just so that he himself could look at it). Taken apart, however jewels can be untraceable once the metal has been melted. 

[vinapu]

kings are gone and so are their jewels, sigh

[BjornAgain]

3 hours ago, unicorn said:

...Taken apart, however jewels can be untraceable once the metal has been melted. 

Reminds me of the infamous 1989 Blue Diamond Affair.

[a-447]

6 hours ago, unicorn said:

Well, the word "si" (without the accent as in Spanish) also means yes in French. It's actually used quite frequently, and is most commonly used as emphasis "Mais si!" (but of course!).

Correct - sort of.

French is my first language, as my mother is French and I grew up speaking  French with her when I was young.

'Si' means yes, but only when you are contradicting a statement made in the negative. It's best translated as 'on the contrary'.

Tu n'aimes pas le chocolate?  You don't like chocolate?

Si, je l'aime beacoup!               On the contrary, I love it.

BTW, Ms des Cars - director of the Louvre- pledged to establish no-parking perimeters in areas around the Louvre, upgrade the CCTV network and ask the interior ministry to set up a police station inside the museum.

The $157,000,000 jewels were unguarded!!!

The horse has bolted! Heads should roll!

[unicorn]

18 hours ago, a-447 said:

...

BTW, Ms des Cars - director of the Louvre- pledged to establish no-parking perimeters in areas around the Louvre, upgrade the CCTV network and ask the interior ministry to set up a police station inside the museum.

The $157,000,000 jewels were unguarded!!!

The horse has bolted! Heads should roll!

You can say that again. If it's true those jewels were left unprotected (with 18th Century glass on the windows, no less), not only should people be fired, but I'd wonder if the negligence doesn't rise to the criminal level... This will go down in history as one of the most asinine museum thefts of all time, from what is perhaps the most famous (and cash rich) museum on the planet. 

[unicorn]

On 10/20/2025 at 11:28 PM, PeterRS said:

... None of the 13 stolen works has ever been recovered, and these include a rare Vermeer and three Rembrandts. The Vermeer remains the most valuable stolen painting in the world. Today only 34 works by Vermeer exist, compared to 74 attributed to him in 1866. The 2023 Vermeer Exhibition in Amsterdam drew 650,000 visitors, the largest ever attendance for an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum...

I understand the theft of jewels (which can be melted), but I've never understood why someone would steal a painting. You'd never be able to sell the painting, nor even able to show the painting to almost anyone else. Am I missing something? Isn't stealing a painting taking a big risk with no potential reward?

[PeterRS]

27 minutes ago, unicorn said:

Am I missing something? Isn't stealing a painting taking a big risk with no potential reward?

From what I understand, the people that steal rare paintings have no desire to profit from them. They may be middle-men for the mega-rich art lovers who hang them in concealed galleries in their mansions and then sit and view them from time to time. Perhaps in the fullness of time, one of their accomplices may claim to have found it and reutrn it for a big reward. But that is generally rare.

You are probably too young to remember the first James Bond movie, Dr No. The year before the film came out, a famous portrait by Goya of The Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Gallery in London. It was eventually returned four yers later - but as you can see in the clip below, it featured in the movie as James Bond does a double-take on seeing it.

[unicorn]

53 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

From what I understand, the people that steal rare paintings have no desire to profit from them. They may be middle-men for the mega-rich art lovers who hang them in concealed galleries in their mansions and then sit and view them from time to time. Perhaps in the fullness of time, one of their accomplices may claim to have found it and reutrn it for a big reward. But that is generally rare.

You are probably too young to remember the first James Bond movie, Dr No. The year before the film came out, a famous portrait by Goya of The Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Gallery in London. It was eventually returned four yers later - but as you can see in the clip below, it featured in the movie as James Bond does a double-take on seeing it.

Well, although Dr. No was before my time, I've seen the movie--and all other Bond movies. Yes, I suppose some super-rich villain could buy the painting to put in his evil lair, where only his trusted henchmen could see the painting. Does that really happen in real life? Are there real Dr. No or Goldfingers around? 

[PeterRS]

10 minutes ago, unicorn said:

Well, although Dr. No was before my time, I've seen the movie--and all other Bond movies. Yes, I suppose some super-rich villain could buy the painting to put in his evil lair, where only his trusted henchmen could see the painting. Does that really happen in real life? Are there real Dr. No or Goldfingers around? 

It very definitely does. If you happen to be an art lover with just a few millions in your bank accounts, paying professional art thieves to steal a certain work of art or series of such works is peanuts. A few people enjoy having a masterpiece somewhere in their homes just to enjoy looking at it.

It is not necessarily just paintings. Among the most valuable objects d'art ever made were the 57 now near priceless Easter Eggs by the jeweller Faberge for the Tsars of Russia. One was given each Easter by the Tsar to his wife until the last Tsar who had two made each year, one of which was for his mother. After the Russian Revolution, many art treasures were sold off by the new communist government at near knock-down prices. The Eggs ended up in various hands, including the British Royal family, but most by entrepreneurs like Malcolm Forbes and oil gazillionaire Armand Hammer, the latter owning 14. I recall on my first visit to New York in 1978 I went to the headquarters of the Forbes businesses where the nine Eggs he had purchased were displayed in individual niches in the lobby which anyone could visit. These were purchased by a Russian squilionaire and returned to Russia in 2004. 15 can now be viewed in a relatively new Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, and others in the Kremlin Museum. But 6 remain unaccounted for including the 1886 Egg. Someone no doubt has them!

The Eggs were not just beutifully fashioned oval eggs bedecked by jewellery. Each had something even more exquisit inside. Below are two of the Eggs.

This is a photo of five of the missing Eggs.

[vinapu]

beautiful useless things.

Painting at least can cover crack or hole in the wall