Over the weekend, a group of burglars stole eight pieces of priceless jewelry from the Louvre in broad daylight. The common refrain? The shocking heist was like something out of a movie. It brings to mind the youthful robbers of Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave masterpiece “Band of Outsiders” (1964) causing havoc by running through the famed museum. Some have compared it to the Netflix series, “Lupin,” which features the central character lifting a valuable necklace from the same institution.
If the real life crime has you itching to watch some fictional versions, here are six films that scratch that itch.
‘How to Steal a Million’ (1966)
Rent or buy it on major platforms.
Audrey Hepburn is Nicole Bonnet, the magnetically stylish Parisian daughter of an art forger in this classic from William Wyler. She teams up with a dashing burglar named Simon Dermott (Peter O’Toole) after she stumbles on him breaking into her home. To protect her darling delinquent father, Nicole asks Simon to help her steal one of her dad’s fakes, a statue of Venus, from a museum. They fall in love and look great doing it, especially given Hepburn’s mod Givenchy wardrobe.
‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (1999)
There have been two iterations of “The Thomas Crown Affair” — the first directed by Norman Jewison in 1968. But it’s the incredibly sexy remake by John McTiernan that puts the already wealthy thief, played here by Pierce Brosnan, in the art world. A Monet stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art puts Crown in the cross hairs of Catherine Banning, an insurance investigator played by Rene Russo. Their steamy chemistry is one of main selling points of the twisty ride.
‘The Great Muppet Caper’ (1981)
Do any of the other movies on this list have Charles Grodin as a jewel thief falling madly in love with Miss Piggy? No, they do not. Do they feature Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog as investigative reporters trying to bust the case wide open? Nope! Sure, “The Great Muppet Caper” might not be the most elaborately constructed heist film, but it is one of the funniest. The plot involves Grodin’s Nicky Holiday planning to steal a rare gem from his sister, the fashion designer Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg). The name of this jewel: the Fabulous Baseball Diamond. Come for the Miss Piggy water ballet, stay for the Peter Falk cameo.
‘Hudson Hawk’ (1991)
Bruce Willis’s passion project “Hudson Hawk” was a critical and commercial flop upon release. Writing for The Times, Janet Maslin called it “a colossally sour and ill-conceived misfire.” But as the years have passed, some fans have reclaimed its zaniness as being underrated. Willis plays the title character, a crooning cat burglar. He is forced by a cartoonishly villainous couple (the deliriously over-the-top Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard) to steal da Vinci treasures so they can enact a world domination plan that involves constructing a machine designed by the Renaissance artist that can convert lead into gold. At one point the couple wants Hudson to get da Vinci’s model of a helicopter “on display for three days at the Louvre in Paris.” Willis cracks in response, “As opposed to the Louvre in Wisconsin?” And while Willis himself never makes it to the Louvre, the museum does suffer some damage in the plot.
‘Ocean’s 8’ (2018)
Rent or buy it on major platforms.
Any one of the “Ocean’s” movies will scratch an itch to watch beautiful people steal. And Steven Soderbergh’s Vegas-set “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001) is probably the best of the bunch. However, the plot of this all-female reboot is the most relevant to the Louvre situation since it involves a famous museum and extremely expensive jewels. Sandra Bullock stars as Debbie Ocean — the sister of George Clooney’s Danny — who recruits a team of fabulous ladies to nab a shimmering Cartier diamond necklace off the neck of a vain actress (Anne Hathaway) during the Met Gala. It’s wildly silly but does feature some fantastically hammy performances, specifically from the gum-smacking Hathaway and Cate Blanchett as Debbie’s punkish partner.
‘The Mastermind’ (2025)
The latest from the director Kelly Reichardt is perhaps one of the most low-key art heist films on this list, but it is a thoroughly absorbing character study of a man flailing through life. In this 1970s-set story, Josh O’Connor plays James Blaine Mooney, a failed art student, who decides to steal a series of paintings from a local Massachusetts museum. Mooney pulls off his plan, and yet soon finds himself on the run, once again disappointing the people in his life, specifically his wife (Alana Haim) and kids. Reichardt sets this against the background of anti-Vietnam protests, showing Mooney as a man guided by his own self-interest amid a culture united in anger.
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