Thieves broke into a gallery at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris overnight Monday and stole nuggets of raw gold worth about $700,000, officials said on Wednesday.
The theft occurred in the geology and mineralogy gallery, the museum said in a statement. The gallery includes meteorites, giant crystals, rocks, minerals and other specimens relevant to the history of the Earth and the solar system, the museum said.
The stolen pieces were taken from a display of unrefined gold, the museum said. The theft was detected by the museum’s security personnel and is under investigation by the police.
“The theft involved several specimens of native gold from the national collections,” the statement said. It gave no further details.
Emmanuel Skoulios, the museum’s director, told BFM TV, a French news broadcaster, that he viewed the stolen pieces as “invaluable” because of their historical and scientific significance.
“We are dealing with an extremely professional team, perfectly aware of where they needed to go and with professional equipment,” Mr. Skoulios said in the interview.
The French news agency AFP reported that the thieves had used a blow torch and grinder to gain access.
Native gold refers to gold in its natural state, like that retrieved from streams in nugget form or extracted from the earth in crystalline form. Untouched by human hands, it is irregular in shape, and no two pieces are alike.
“It’s a natural piece of artwork,” said Carlin Green, a geologist from the United States Geological Survey.
Native gold that is refined and fashioned into coins, bullion or ingots is valued at about $3,600 an ounce. But when it is untouched and in its unique, nature-sculpted form, a native gold nugget sells for about one and a half times that price, while its crystalline form is rare and more valuable, Mr. Green said.
The heist came at a critical time for cultural institutions, as thefts have occurred at a number of museums in France in recent months, the museum’s statement said.
Porcelain pieces worth about $7 million were stolen from the Adrien Dubouche Museum in the central city of Limoges this month, AFP reported, and in 2024, thieves stole elaborate snuff boxes from Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris.
Jenny Gross contributed reporting.
Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news stories, features and explainers.
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