If the title caught your attention, please rethink your life decisions. This was NOT the case for four thieves on the morning of October 19 in Paris, France.
It was a cloudy morning along the Seine in the city of love and baguettes. The four suspects arrived at a balcony leading to the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre Museum, just next to the river. The Louvre is the world’s largest museum and was once a royal palace, home to all French kings until King Louis XIV moved the royal residence to Versailles in 1682. It became a public museum in 1793, just after the French Revolution. Since then, it has amassed a collection of more than 500,000 valuable objects and priceless works of art across just under 73,000 square meters. But even a fortress of culture and riches as renowned as the Louvre is not immune to bold criminal schemes. The thieves used a motorized lift to reach the second-floor window, then cut a hole in the glass to enter. Once inside, they forced all guards and visitors to evacuate the exhibit and stole some of France’s most valuable jewels. Officials say that it took the thieves no less than 4 minutes to force their way in, break through the cases, and leave without a trace.
“What was stolen?” you might ask, nothing much, just… THE CROWN JEWELS OF FRANCE. The French Ministry of Culture reports that the stolen items were: a tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon Buonaparte; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings previously belonging to Empress Marie Louise; a tiara, necklace, and a single earring from the sapphire set belonging to Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense; a brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”
The net value of these stolen jewels is €88 million—that’s about $102 million. If I am being honest, this sounds like an episode straight out of Carmen Sandiego or The Red Notice.
The world has been left completely astounded by this heist. This heist has been met with a mix of emotions. Some feel amused and an odd sense of admiration for these thieves, who are so bold in an era of such high-tech security. The romanticization of heists in the media has definitely played a role in that feeling, thanks to shows like Money Heist and Lupin. Some online enthusiasts even made “fanfics” about the thieves and their love lives. While the youth is taking this situation in good humor, many in the older population believe this heist is a cause for national shame and concern for the safety of all the precious works of art at the Louvre. According to France’s state auditor, the heist is a “deafening wake-up call” for modernizing the museum’s systems and implementing structural updates.
