# The Great Louvre Jewelry Heist **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 19, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104 "2025-10-19T23:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/1 "2025-10-19T23:22:06Z")
So earlier today, a small team of thieves disguised as workmen climbed a mobile freight elevator up the side of the Louvre museum in Paris, sawed in through a window, opened two display cases, and made off with French royal jewelry worth an undisclosed sum of euros euros. In and out, seven minutes, in broad daylight. They then went out the window, climbed onto motorcycles, and vanished into the City of Light. As the French would say, _chapeau_. Impressively done. > **[Thieves steal ‘priceless’ jewelry from the Louvre in seven-minute raid | CNN](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/19/europe/robbery-louvre-paris-france-museum-closure-intl)** > > Thieves have stolen “priceless” jewelry from the Louvre in Paris, the world’s most-visited museum, in an audacious seven-minute raid on Sunday, the French interior minister has said. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/2 "2025-10-19T23:37:22Z")
[Maurice Leblanc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Leblanc) smiles from the great beyond. That was a display of élan! As many of us have always said: look like you’re supposed to be doing work, nobody will ask what are you doing until it’s too late. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/3 "2025-10-19T23:56:24Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > chapeau Hat? Is that like saying “My hat’s off to you” in English? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/4 "2025-10-20T04:24:01Z")
Unless the theft was at least [as clever as this](https://youtu.be/kJKWjeMtEDM?si=WssmMlo-Dol0Pb9I) I’m not interested. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/5 "2025-10-20T06:57:21Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > [Maurice Leblanc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Leblanc) smiles from the great beyond. As does [Jean-Pierre Melville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Melville). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/6 "2025-10-20T07:10:29Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Is that like saying “My hat’s off to you” in English? I think so. I learned it from my sister’s francophone in-laws. ---
**Author:** ![LouMa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/louma/32/19472_2.png) [@LouMa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouMa)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/7 "2025-10-20T08:21:43Z")
@Alessan Chapeau means something like ‘recognition or respect for what you have done’. To be honest, the burglars don’t deserve much respect: they conveniently entered the windows via a parked construction crane. During their escape, they lost Eugénie’s crown (wife of Napoleon III) and another piece of jewelry, both of which were damaged. It was probably a contract job. Since the pieces of jewelry are unique and well known in art circles, they are unsellable. They will probably be taken apart and melted down, and thus lost forever. Chapeau? Well, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/8 "2025-10-20T08:29:06Z")
So far,there hasn’t been any release of video footage or descriptions of the thieves, besides the fact that they were wearing workclothes and hi-viz jackets. (A shame, I prefer my jewel thieves to be dressed in impeccably tailored suits.) Usually nowadays, any kind of manhunt comes with at least some fuzzy camera stills indicating height, ethnicity, build, etc. Are there not any cameras in that gallery? Is there some reason not to release any footage? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/9 "2025-10-20T08:33:29Z")
> [@LouMa](#): > > They will probably be taken apart and melted down, and thus lost forever. Maybe. I suspect, though, that if they had just wanted to steal gold and gems for their market value, they’d have chosen a less secure target that the Louvre, not to mention a target that would bring much less “heat”. If you want gold and diamonds, you rob a jewelry trader, you don’t steal from a place that will bring the full force of the French government down on you. That’s why I suspect the jewelry will remain intact. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/10 "2025-10-20T10:19:46Z")
Has anyone seen [Omar Sy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin_(French_TV_series)) lately? ---
**Author:** ![LouMa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/louma/32/19472_2.png) [@LouMa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouMa)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/11 "2025-10-20T10:58:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That’s why I suspect the jewelry will remain intact. Hmm, if the jewels remain intact (the crown was damaged, as already mentioned), what does the client intend to do with them? Should an oligarch’s mistress wear them? Or should they be stored deep in a Saudi prince’s safe? Does someone want to humiliate France? Do the MAGA people want to please Trump, meaning that we will soon see Melania Trump wearing these jewels at a banquet with Macron? There are no limits to the imagination, and in today’s world, things happen that would have been considered impossible ten years ago. Let’s wait and see. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/12 "2025-10-20T11:03:32Z")
> [@LouMa](#): > > Hmm, if the jewels remain intact (the crown was damaged, as already mentioned), what does the client intend to do with them? Should an oligarch’s mistress wear them? Or should they be stored deep in a Saudi prince’s safe? Does someone want to humiliate France? Do the MAGA people want to please Trump, meaning that we will soon see Melania Trump wearing these jewels at a banquet with Macron? There are no limits to the imagination Would it be harder to ransom them back than it was to steal them in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/13 "2025-10-20T11:29:43Z")
> [@LouMa](#): > > Or should they be stored deep in a Saudi prince’s safe? Same thing that happens with famous paintings that are stolen, I imagine - some folks just want to be the ones that have them. ---
**Author:** ![LouMa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/louma/32/19472_2.png) [@LouMa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouMa)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/14 "2025-10-20T11:40:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Would it be harder to ransom them back than it was to steal them in the first place? Yes, I definitely think so. The break-in was a surprise coup; no one was prepared for it. In blackmail, the critical point is the handover. The French police and government will do everything, absolutely everything, to apprehend the perpetrators during the handover. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/15 "2025-10-20T13:00:49Z")
That the Regent, Sancy and Hortensia Diamonds were not stolen may be significant. Those really would have been impossible to sell through legitimate channels, as they are so distinctive. Most of the individual stones in the pieces that were stolen are less so and thus those items could very easily be broken up. But the ransom v. breaking-up arguments are not actually mutually exclusive. The gang could try to get a ransom in the full knowledge that, if that failed, they still have the option of dismantling them. And the French government will know that when considering any demands. That many of the items stolen in the 2019 Dresden Grünes Gewölbe robbery were recovered intact three years later means that recovery isn’t impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/16 "2025-10-20T13:08:15Z")
I’m a little surprised the heist was possible. I’ve never been to the Louvre but I have seen the British Crown Jewels. The gallery in which you see those is literally inside of a big safe with an enormous door so the door could be shut at any sign of a heist. And it is (or was) in a basement level. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/17 "2025-10-20T13:22:27Z")
Ethnicity? Only in America. Over half the galleries don’t have cameras, they have been saving on security (but spent a fortune on a glitzy ball saal for VIP meals and festivities – sounds familiar?). But the tourists have filmed them, don’t worry. There is always someone filming you today. I guess they will sell the pics to the highest bidding TV station, may take a while. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/18 "2025-10-20T13:24:53Z")
Heck, they could just return the jewels and live off the movie rights and the interview circuits. Can’t wait! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/19 "2025-10-20T14:12:42Z")
This theft, especially under those circumstances, is of course a humiliation for the French psyche and the authorities in already politically unstable times. The opposition was quick to blame it on Macron and the government. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104/20 "2025-10-20T14:37:17Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > The opposition was quick to blame it on Macron and the government. _J’en ai ras le bol!_ That _tête de noeud_ Macron set the combination lock to Bastille Day again! You would have thought that he’d know better after some teens from Aschaffenburg dismantled the Eiffel Tower as a prank when austerity measures led to replacing security patrols with a Kryptonite bike lock that could be picked with a paperclip and a biro cap! _Merde!_ Stranger [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-louvre-jewelry-heist/1024104.md?page=2)