He Louvre Museumthe most visited in the world, was robbery victim in which thieves, in just seven minutes, made off with eight pieces of the imperial collection described as “priceless”. However, it is not the first time it has happened. The Louvre has been a victim of audacious robberies and controversial since the beginning of the last century, which puts on the table, above all, a question that goes beyond some missing jewels: is the security of one of the most important museums deficient?
What happened. A group of between three and four hooded individuals, presumably dressed as workers, took advantage of the rehabilitation works on the façade of the museum that overlooks the Seine River. Using a forklift they directly accessed a first floor window. Once in the Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Jewels are displayed, they used heavy tools, such as a chainsaw or a radial saw, to destroy two high-security display cases.
Among the eight pieces that were stolen were tiaras, necklaces and brooches of Empress Eugenia de Montijo and Queen María Amelia, as well as other historical pieces of the French Crown. The assailants fled quickly on large motorcycles. One of the pieces, the empress’s crown, was found damaged near the museum, lost in the frantic flight. The robbery, with visitors in the room, generated panic, since the thieves used the same radios to threaten the security guards. Among other measures that failed are those of the alarms that “were not heard by the agents or did not sound in the Gallery“.
Previous robberies: La Gioconda (1911). As we say, this is not the first time something like this has happened at the Louvre. The most notorious robbery occurred on August 21, 1911, with ‘The Mona Lisa‘ by Leonardo Da Vinci. This incident did not involve spectacular devicesMission: Impossible‘, but the simple negligence of the security system of the time. The author was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker who had been an employee of the Louvre and had participated in the construction of the painting’s glass display case. Peruggia hid in a closet on Sunday night (partial closure of the museum), came out on Monday morning, took down the portrait from the Salon Carré, and left with the work under his work coat.
He said his motivation was patriotic, seeking to return Leonardo da Vinci’s work to Italy, as he mistakenly believed it had been stolen by Napoleon. Security at the Louvre was weak in 1911: the museum, with more than a thousand rooms, was protected by fewer than 150 guards for more than 250,000 objects, which meant that statues and paintings were often damaged without being immediately detected. It was 26 hours before anyone noticed the painting was missing. The news caused a media frenzy, and even the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and Pablo Picasso were briefly arrested as suspects. The painting was recovered two years later, in 1913, when Peruggia tried to sell it to an antique dealer in Florence.
Heists previous: Burgundy breastplate and helmet (1983). On May 1, 1983 this took place another robbery: The pieces were a valuable cuirass and a burgundy-type helmet from the 16th century, both with gold and silver inlays. The pieces had been donated to the museum in 1922 by Baroness Salomon Rothschild, and the display case containing the pieces appeared vandalized: the fact that historical military pieces could be stolen from a display case in what was presumed to be a guarded environment revealed that the vulnerabilities went beyond the paintings. The pieces did not reappear for almost forty years, and all thanks to an investigation initiated by an expert in military antiquities in the 2020s, who detected them in a private collection in Bordeaux.
Heists previous: Streak of quick robberies in 1995. That year a series of thefts and acts of vandalism revealed the vulnerability of the Louvre. In January, a visitor used a box cutter to cut and damage a painting by Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé, ‘Deer in a Landscape’. Just a week later, a 17-kilogram battle ax belonging to a monument sculpted by Martin Desjardins was stolen. In July, a valuable painting made with Robert de Nanteuil’s pastel technique finally disappeared. This series of incidents made it clear that, although security had been reinforced around the most iconic works, the pieces displayed in large and less traveled areas became easy targets.
A vulnerable building. The recent robbery has revealed a series of tactics that reveal different vulnerabilities: taking advantage of areas on site (that is, a blind spot or one with less surveillance), entering the building using a forklift, carrying it out in broad daylight and with visitors inside, and the use of heavy tools without an immediate and effective security response. Although the 1911 robbery already demonstrated that personnel are key to preventing these robberies, in June 2025 there were workers protests over the lack of troops to control the large numbers of visitors.
This theft has made it evident that there is a clear vulnerability in the museum, and this has been noted by those responsible for security: the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, has declared that “The issue of the vulnerability of our museums is not new. It has been 40 years since we took care of their security.” The minister has also said that two years ago the then president of the Louvre had asked the Prefect of Police to review and carry out an audit on security. Dati has also commented that “museums must be adapted to the new forms of crime, which are organized, they are professionals who enter calmly, in four minutes take the loot and leave without any violence.”
Photo of Thomas Eidsvold in Unsplash
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