€88 million of jewels stolen from the Louvre

A collection of suspects have recently been detained by French police for participating in Paris' Louvre museum heist.

The audacious raid unfolded at 9.30 am on 19th October, with the jewels being lifted within merely seven minutes. Disguised as construction workers, two of the gang of four made use of a vehicle-mounted extendable ladder to reach the Louvre's second floor, where the Apollo gallery housed France's irreplaceable Napoleonic jewels.

Using an angle grinder to access the hall via the window, two of the gang then cracked open the glass display cabinets and grabbed the priceless gems. The brazen robbery, in broad daylight, netted the thieves an 88 million euro haul.

Having only started welcoming visitors 30 minutes earlier, the Louvre was compelled to close, turning away crowds of bewildered and disgruntled tourists.

Janie: "You know, you think, in the Louvre, of all places, don't they have like the best security on the planet? So, it's crazy. I'm thinking an inside job maybe? It's really weird."

Disheartened ticket holders weren't alone in querying how such a slick attack on Paris' world-famous gallery could have transpired. Elise Muller, Louvre security officer and union representative, claimed the culprit was the Culture Ministry's annual cutbacks in funding for security.

Elise Muller: "When you eliminate professional posts, sooner or later there's a price to pay. And this time it's been a dramatic one, we've faced something worse than a film scene. No one could ever have imagined we'd get to this point, in the world's greatest museum."

The brazen raid has rekindled an ongoing dispute over the protection of the nation's museums. Only a month prior to this, gold nuggets were snatched from Paris' Natural History Museum, in addition to precious porcelain items worth millions from a museum in Limoges.

A 60-strong team is currently investigating the extraordinary Louvre break-in, presumed to have been executed by an organised crime group, and is anticipating cracking the case shortly. View Less