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PARIS, France -- In a brazen, seven-minute strike, thieves utilized a handbasket assistance to scope the Louvre connected Sunday greeting and, arsenic tourists were already inside, forced a window, smashed show cases and fled with jewels of "inestimable value," France's interior curate said.
The world's astir visited depository closed for the time arsenic constabulary sealed gates and ushered visitors retired during the investigation.
"A robbery took spot this greeting astatine the opening of the Louvre Museum," Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote connected X. The depository cited "exceptional reasons" for the closure. No injuries were reported.
Around 9:30 a.m., respective intruders forced unfastened a window, stole jewels from vitrines and escaped connected two-wheelers, according to the Interior Ministry. It said forensic enactment is underway and a precise inventory of the stolen objects is being compiled, adding that the items person "inestimable" humanities value. Dati and Nuñez were connected tract with depository leadership.
Video from the country showed confused tourists being ushered retired of the solid pyramid and surrounding courtyards arsenic officers unopen the robust gates and closed adjacent streets on the Seine.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called it a "major robbery," saying the intruders entered from the extracurricular utilizing a handbasket lift. He said connected France Inter vigor that the heist took 7 minutes and the thieves utilized a disc cutter to portion done the panes. He said it was "manifestly a squad that had done scouting."
The heist occurred successful the Galerie d'Apollon, a vaulted hallway successful the Denon helping that displays portion of the French Crown Jewels beneath a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV's tribunal artist, according to the ministry.
French regular Le Parisien reported the thieves entered via the Seine-facing facade, wherever operation is underway, and utilized a freight elevator to scope the gallery. After breaking windows, they reportedly took 9 pieces from the jewelry postulation of Napoleon and the Empress. One stolen jewel was aboriginal recovered extracurricular the museum, the insubstantial reported, adding that the point was believed to beryllium Empress Eugénie's crown and that it had been broken.
Security and staffing astatine the Louvre successful the spotlight
Security astir the marquee works remains tight. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof solid and a customized high-tech show strategy arsenic portion of broader anti-theft measures crossed the museum.
Staffing and extortion person been flashpoints astatine the Louvre. The depository delayed opening during a June unit walkout implicit overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions person warned that wide tourism strains information and visitant management.
It wasn't instantly wide whether staffing levels played immoderate relation successful Sunday's theft.
In January, President Emmanuel Macron announced a decade-long "Louvre New Renaissance" program - astir 700 cardinal to modernize infrastructure, easiness crowding, and springiness the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece its ain dedicated assemblage by 2031 - but workers accidental alleviation has been dilatory to scope the floor.
Other European museums person been robbed
The theft, little than fractional an hr aft doors opened, echoes different caller European depository raids.
In 2019, thieves smashed vitrines successful Dresden's Green Vault and carried disconnected diamond-studded royal jewels worthy hundreds of millions of euros. In 2017, burglars astatine Berlin's Bode Museum stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid-gold coin. In 2010, a lone intruder slipped into Paris's Museum of Modern Art and escaped with 5 paintings, including a Picasso.
The Louvre has a agelong past of thefts and attempted robberies. The astir celebrated came successful 1911, erstwhile the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a erstwhile idiosyncratic who hid wrong the depository and walked retired with the coating nether his coat. It was recovered 2 years aboriginal successful Florence - an occurrence that helped marque Leonardo da Vinci's representation the world's best-known artwork.
Home to much than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture, and coating - from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the classical satellite to European masters - the Louvre's prima attractions see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The depository tin gully up to 30,000 visitors a day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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