Louvre shut as French police probe robbery in Paris

French police have announced the closure of Louvre museum in Paris following a broad daylight robbery on Sunday, October 19, 2025.

Police stated that the hunt for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight have commenced.

Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.

In France, it reignited a row over the lack of security in the country’s museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nunez acknowledged Sunday was a “major weak spot”.

A source close to the investigation said the thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40 a.m. (07:30 and 07:40 GMT) on Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9:00 a.m.

The source added that the robbers used an extendable ladder to access the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.

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A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels.

The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which — the crown of the Empress Eugenie — was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.

Also stolen was a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds; and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It has eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre’s website.

Nunez disclosed that the whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly “foreigners”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that “everything is being done” to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.

The Star