The thieves behind the daring heist at the Louvre in Paris, France, appear to have used a truck-mounted moving lift — the kind of professional movers that hoist furniture to apartment windows — to climb the building’s second floor, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
The burglars pretended to rent the freight elevator for a move and when the equipment owner or representative arrived to verify the job, the suspects threatened that person and forced him to hand over and leave the scene, Beccuau said in an interview with RTL radio. The New York Times.
Authorities say the thieves spent less than four minutes in the Louvre on Sunday morning. They allegedly drove the vehicle to the facade on the Seine, a window was broken and two display cases were destroyed.
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Police cordon off the area outside the Louvre in Paris, where burglars used a truck-mounted moving elevator to reach a second-floor window and steal royal jewelry worth more than $100 million. (Getty Images)
The thieves made off with a total of eight items, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense. The robbery has sparked a national reckoning, with some officials comparing the shock to the 2019 Notre Dame fire.
They also stole an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, and a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large brooch with corsage bow – an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship – were also part of the loot.
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One piece – the emerald-set imperial crown of Empress Eugénie, with more than 1,300 diamonds – was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.
Beccuau said the stolen items were worth about $102.1 million and the team investigating the robbery has grown to 100 people.
The pieces were not insured, which is not unusual for state collections due to the prohibitive cost, the Times reported, citing the French culture ministry. The ministry reportedly said that the state “acts as its own insurer” when the works are in the usual place, “given the cost of obtaining insurance” and the fact that “the number of accidents is low”.
French crime scene officers gesturally examine the cut-out window and balcony of a gallery in the Louvre on October 19, 2025. (Kiran Ridley/Getty/Zhang Weiguo/VCG/AP/Zhang Weiguo/VCG/AP)
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Beccuau told local media that investigators believe the robbers may have been commissioned by a collector or motivated purely by the value of the jewelry and precious metals, Reuters reported.
“We are looking at the organized crime hypothesis,” Beccuau told BFMTV, noting that the thieves could be professionals operating on spec for a buyer.
Beccuau added that if a collector were to pull off the heist, there is hope that the stolen pieces will remain intact and well-preserved until they are recovered, the outlet reported. If the thieves were acting independently, they might have targeted the jewels for their potential use in laundering criminal proceeds.
“Nowadays, everything can be linked to drug trafficking, given the significant amounts of money made from drug trafficking,” Beccuau said, according to Reuters.
Investigators are keeping all leads open, but foreign interference has reportedly been largely ruled out in the case.
Forensic police officers arrive at the Louvre Museum after reports of a robbery in Paris, France, on October 19, 2025. (Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes)
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The smash-and-grab on Sunday morning took place just 250 meters from the Mona Lisa.
Prosecutors announced Monday that a vest, a bottle of fluid and equipment left at the scene are now under investigation.
The Louvre reopened Wednesday morning to crowds under the glass pyramid
