The serene atmosphere of the Louvre was shattered when thieves, using an angle grinder, breached the Gallery of Apollo. An attendant on duty that morning described the unnerving experience, recounting the “huge noise” that initially sounded like an angry visitor, but soon revealed itself to be a sophisticated, rapid heist. “No-one could have been prepared for this,” she stated, recalling the metallic grinding that signaled the attackers’ entry through a reinforced window.
Within a mere eight minutes, the criminals managed to snatch eight priceless crown jewels, including the coveted necklace of Empress Marie-Louise and the diadem of Empress Eugenie. The estimated value of these stolen treasures is a staggering €88 million (£77 million). The perpetrators utilized a lorry-mounted mechanical ladder to gain access to the first-floor gallery, highlighting the audacious nature of their plan.
The attendant vividly described the panic that ensued, with tourists running towards the danger. “I saw one of the criminals turn around with something that looked to me like a chainsaw, then I yelled at my colleagues to get out,” she recounted, relaying how she twice warned them of the robbery and urged them to flee.
Her colleague, raising the alarm via walkie-talkie, enabled the team to evacuate visitors without fully grasping the gravity of the situation. “We finished evacuating the visitors without quite realising really what was going on,” she added, noting that they secured the neighboring galleries by closing all doors upon their exit.
Reflecting on the event, the attendant expressed disbelief that the display cases could be breached. “Never for a moment did we think there was such a risk… nobody can be prepared for that,” she confessed, lamenting a perceived decline in security culture at the museum.
Adding to the account, a security guard described the strong smell of petrol at the scene as he arrived, noticing that the gang had ruptured the lorry’s fuel tank and left a blowtorch nearby, suggesting an intention to set fire to their vehicle. He believes this oversight allowed authorities to gather crucial evidence. “They even lost one of the pieces they’d meant to steal, because they’d lost [Empress] Eugenie’s crown, which they’d just stolen and it had fallen on the ground.” The guard and his team were the first to discover the damaged crown, a discovery that, despite its significance, was marred by the jewel’s compromised state.