'Priceless' Louvre crown jewels stolen, international manhunt underway

Daring Daylight Heist at the Louvre [00:00]

• Masked thieves stole priceless French crown jewels, including a sapphire tiara and an emerald necklace set with 1,000 diamonds, from the Louvre Museum.
• The heist, described as a "wild seven-minute heist," saw only four minutes spent inside the museum, with the rest of the time dedicated to entering and exiting undetected.
• Thieves disguised as workers wearing yellow vests used a moving elevator ladder to reach the second-floor balcony and an angle grinder to force open a window into the Apollo Gallery.
• Nine of the Louvre's most valuable treasures, specifically 19th-century French crown jewels, were taken.
• Among the stolen items were a crown adorned with 24 sapphires and 1,083 diamonds, a diamond and sapphire necklace, a pair of earrings, and a bow with over 2,000 diamonds.

  "You don't do that without prior planning."

Investigation and Recovery Prospects [03:24]

• A retired FBI agent and founding member of the FBI Art Crime Team notes the extraordinary amount of preparation involved in the seven-minute heist.
• French police are conducting an active manhunt and investigating leads, with the first 48 hours deemed crucial for tracking the thieves.
• Recoveries of stolen art are often made shortly after a theft, or it can become a generational pursuit; 40 hours past the theft is not immediately worrying but indicates it won't be solved overnight.
• Investigators are reviewing surveillance video, processing the recovered truck (which the subjects may have planned to burn), and looking for potential DNA evidence.
• Surveillance footage is being reviewed not just throughout France but across Europe, with intelligence sources consulted for any information.
• The investigation is expected to be a "long haul."

  "When you look at art theft, it's going to be recoveries are going to be made very shortly after the theft or it's going to be generational."

Theories on Perpetrators and Motivations [04:41]

• A Paris prosecutor suggested the possibility that an art collector commissioned the heist, a theory an FBI expert views as more likely speculation than fact, referencing the "Dr. No theory" of a reclusive billionaire with illicit treasures, which has never materialized.
• The more likely scenario is organized crime, whose boldness can catch people off guard, as was the case here.
• Unlike iconic paintings that are too "hot" to sell and often remain undiscovered (like those stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), jewels can be dismantled, gems recut, and settings melted down, making them a more practical target for thieves.
• Thieves might hold onto stolen jewels for a while, as they can serve as a "get out of jail free card" if recovered, rather than breaking them up immediately.
• The Green Vault robbery in Dresden in 2019 is cited as an example where jewels were recovered three years later when the thieves were arrested.

  "It's very Hollywood like the idea of some reclusive billionaire who, has his his underground lair filled with illicit treasures. We've never seen that ever happen."

Security and Vulnerabilities in Museums [07:00]

• The director of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, site of an unsolved 1990 heist, stated that while museums have good security, no place is impenetrable.
• The method used in the Louvre heist, a "brute force approach" combined with construction equipment to blend in, is difficult to prevent.
• The timing of the theft (9:30 AM, when the museum was open) and the fact that the Apollo Gallery was empty suggest potential inside information or a specific knowledge of security protocols being lowered.
• Security experts believe thieves are likely to dismantle the jewels and sell the individual components rather than trying to sell the recognizable pieces whole.

  "Well, Jake, you know, there there is good security there. And most museums do have good security, but no place is impenetrable."