Thieves made off with jewelry of “incalculable” value in a brazen daylight robbery on Sunday at the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to France’s interior minister.
The heist unfolded around 9:30 a.m. Laurent Nuñez, the interior minister, told France Inter radio that the thieves had used a lift mechanism on a truck to break into the Galerie d’Apollon, a first-floor wing of the museum that houses a collection that includes the French crown jewels.
The thieves breached a window with an angle grinder, broke into two display cases and fled on motor scooters with their loot within just seven minutes, according to Mr. Nuñez. He did not specify what exactly had been stolen, but said the jewelry had “patrimonial” and “historical” value that made it “priceless.”
“It’s a major robbery,” Mr. Nuñez said, adding that investigators believed that three or four thieves were involved and that the robbery bore the hallmarks of an experienced team of veteran criminals because the robbers had acted with precision and speed.
Rachida Dati, the French culture minister, said that there were no injuries and that the police were on the scene.
The Louvre said in a statement that the museum would stay closed on Sunday as “a security measure and to preserve traces and clues for the investigation.”
Mr. Nuñez said investigators were poring through evidence that included objects abandoned by the thieves and security camera footage.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it had opened an investigation and that “the extent of the losses is currently being assessed.”
The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works of art, including many sculptures, paintings and antiques. Among the most famous pieces is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Up to 30,000 people visit the museum each day.
There have been a number of high-profile heists at the Louvre. During the summer of 1911, a museum employee stole the Mona Lisa. The employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, was arrested two years later while trying to sell the painting in Italy, and the Mona Lisa was returned to the museum.
Another high-profile theft took place in 1976, when three burglars broke into the Louvre at dawn and stole a 19th-century diamond-studded sword belonging to King Charles X of France. The thieves climbed up a metal scaffolding and smashed windows on the second floor, breaking into the museum. And in 1990, a painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir, “Portrait of a Seated Woman,” was cut from its frame and stolen from a third-floor gallery.
In recent years, there have been a string of robberies targeting rare coins and jewels at museums across Europe.
In 2019, for instance, thieves broke into the Green Vault rooms of the Royal Palace museum in Dresden, Germany, and stole more than 100 million euros worth of jewels (about $116 million). Most of the loot was later recovered as part of a plea deal.
Mr. Nuñez said on Sunday that security at the Louvre had increased in recent years, and that it would be heightened further with the latest plans to overhaul the museum.
“But we can’t prevent everything,” he told France Inter.
Jenny Gross and Alex Marshall contributed reporting from London.
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
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