On the morning of October 19th, Holly and Jake Barker from Indianapolis were among the first visitors eagerly awaiting entry to the Louvre Museum.
Their carefully laid plan involved a direct route to the iconic Mona Lisa, followed by a sprint to Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” and Jacques-Louis David’s renowned painting of Napoleon. Their fourth stop was the opulent Apollo Gallery, celebrated for its exquisite collection of royal jewels and often described as a miniature Hall of Mirrors.
At precisely 9:32 AM, Ms. Barker stepped into the dazzling, gilded hall, capturing the moment with a photograph. As she paused to admire a breathtaking wedding gift from Napoleon to his second wife – a necklace adorned with 32 emeralds and over 1,100 diamonds – the serene morning was shattered by the first of three thunderous bangs. Just two minutes later, at 9:34 AM, masked intruders were forcefully entering through the window.
A profound silence fell upon the gallery, a moment of stark confusion, as described by her husband, who exchanged a bewildered glance with Holly. This stillness was abruptly broken by a piercing whirring sound from the balcony outside: the thieves had started a disc grinder, poised to cut through reinforced glass.
“Everyone get out!” an attendant urgently shouted. Ms. Barker, a middle-school teacher familiar with active-shooter drills, initially feared they were caught in a terrorist attack.
Clasping hands, the couple, along with about twenty other terrified visitors, fled the gallery. They cast one last glance back as the attendant slammed the doors shut, yelling, “Run!”
It was roughly 90 minutes later when the Barkers finally understood the gravity of what they had witnessed: the largest heist at the world’s most renowned museum since the Mona Lisa’s theft in 1911.
A Bold Entry, A Desperate Escape
Over a week has passed since the brazen daylight burglary, which saw thieves escape with more than $100 million worth of jewels. France remains deeply shaken by the audacity of the crime, the glaring security failures it exposed, and the diminishing hope that the stolen treasures will ever be recovered intact.
Many questions still linger for the public, including whether the thieves meticulously scouted the location, a common practice for experienced museum robbers, and if they received any inside assistance from museum personnel.
However, a clearer picture of the crime is beginning to surface through testimonies from French authorities, interviews with Louvre staff, and local media reports. Evidence suggests a sophisticated plan, including the theft of a truck-mounted electric ladder to access the second floor. The thieves disguised themselves as workmen in yellow vests and appeared to know precisely which display cases they intended to target, one of which was the very case Ms. Barker had been observing.
Using specialized tools, the burglars cut hand-sized holes into the display cases – a technique notably described in the Louvre’s own firefighting manual as effective for emergency access. Experts highlight that museum cases for valuable items are typically built to endure approximately 140 hammer or axe strikes, enough to deter most thieves, making the use of disc grinders a remarkably innovative and alarming tactic.
Despite their careful planning, emerging details reveal that the thieves ultimately became flustered. In their hurried escape, they inadvertently left behind a treasure trove of evidence, which swiftly led police to two of the perpetrators.
On Saturday night, police apprehended two men believed to have entered the gallery. Late Wednesday night, they were formally charged with organized gang theft and criminal association. One suspect was captured at Charles de Gaulle airport attempting to flee with a one-way ticket to Algeria, while the second was arrested 40 minutes later near his home in a Paris suburb. Two accomplices are still at large.
Brian Ledsinger from Houston, Texas, who was also present in the Apollo Gallery during the break-in, pondered, “How do you execute such an elaborate plan, only to get caught at the airport? They were both amateurish and cunning.”
Critical Lapses, Precious Minutes Lost
For the Louvre, the Achilles’ heel proved to be its inadequate security infrastructure, particularly its perimeter cameras, as revealed by museum director Laurence des Cars to the French Senate last week. She disclosed during a hearing that the outdoor cameras were outdated and insufficient, failing to provide comprehensive coverage of the museum’s extensive facade.
A recent investigation by a reporter from The Times identified approximately 25 cameras along the Louvre’s perimeter, with only five positioned on the outer walls; the rest were located in inner courtyards. In contrast, the British Museum, despite its smaller size, utilizes several dozen cameras for perimeter surveillance. The Louvre has declined to comment on its external camera setup.
Critically, the very section targeted by the thieves was monitored by a single outdoor security camera. However, this camera was unfortunately oriented west of the balcony, completely missing the actual break-in, as confirmed by the museum director.
If the camera’s alignment had been different, security personnel in the museum’s control room could have observed the thieves as they scaled the balcony using their electric ladder. Instead, guards were left unaware for four crucial minutes while the intruders positioned themselves and began cutting through the window, significantly delaying the alarm to the police.
During Senate testimony on Wednesday, a police official conceded that the police force also bore responsibility for perimeter security and had experienced its own oversight. Vincent Annereau, head of Paris’s crime prevention service, stated that seven street cameras monitor the Louvre’s vicinity. While one camera did capture the thieves’ arrival, the footage went unnoticed, and no issues were suspected until alerts of an ongoing burglary were received. Annereau attributed this lapse to the frequent construction activities in Paris and the police’s lack of AI-powered camera monitoring systems.
Considering the timeline of the break-in provided by various officials, including the museum’s director, it appears the police missed intercepting the intruders by mere seconds. Paris’s police chief noted that officers responded within three minutes of being alerted by museum staff and a passerby cyclist. However, these alerts were triggered only *after* the thieves had begun cutting into the display cases — and the perpetrators made their escape with eight priceless items less than three minutes after that initial notification.
The Execution of the Heist
The operation began at 9:30 AM when four thieves arrived and parked their truck. Two of them climbed the ladder, while the other two remained with the getaway vehicles: a pair of motor scooters.
Upon gaining entry to the gallery, the first thief moved directly to the display case that Ms. Barker had admired just moments prior. This was not the closest case to the window, but the fifth in a series along the 200-foot gallery. This particular case housed Napoleon’s wedding gift, a sapphire necklace, and a matching tiara and earrings once owned by Marie-Amelie, France’s last queen.
The second thief, identifiable by a motorcycle helmet, proceeded to attack the adjacent display case.
Remarkably, these display cases, installed in 2019, featured reinforced, bulletproof glass. A former senior member of the Louvre’s firefighting unit noted that they were also designed with specific weak points to allow emergency breakage by firefighters in case of a blaze.
As soon as the window was breached, alarms blared in the guards’ control room, followed by further alerts as the thieves targeted the two display cases, according to the museum director’s testimony. From the control room, the chief operations manager contacted the nearest police station, located just over half a mile away, and simultaneously activated an emergency alert button, notifying the central police prefecture.
Surveillance footage, as reported by Le Parisien, showed the events that unfolded in the gallery. The thieves maintained their composure even as two museum guards attempted to intervene; one approached with a metal pole, only to be waved back by an intruder.
However, the burglars’ calm soon gave way to sloppiness. One dropped some jewelry, pausing to retrieve it, and they left behind a glove and a jeweled brooch. The footage also captured the helmeted thief scrambling head-first into the ladder’s basket, according to the newspaper’s report.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has not commented on Le Parisien’s report.
A video, circulated on social media platform X and verified by Storyful, a content review company, appears to depict the suspects descending the mechanical ladder during their escape.
A museum attendant informed French television channel BFM that he and his colleagues, responding to an alert, rushed from the museum’s lobby to the street where the thieves had parked. They arrived just as the motor scooters sped away.
The guard reported discovering holes in the truck’s gas tank and a nearby blowtorch, suggesting the thieves likely intended to incinerate the truck to destroy any incriminating evidence.
Instead, as authorities confirm, the thieves abandoned a wealth of evidence, including power tools, gloves, a motorcycle helmet, and one of the yellow vests worn during the heist.
Among the discarded items was the stunning crown of Empress Eugénie.
“Even with meticulous preparation, thieves frequently make errors when under pressure,” noted Olivier Halnais, head of the national union of forensic police officers.
Halnais characterized the abandoned items as an invaluable resource for investigators. He explained that a helmet, for example, would be exceptionally rich in DNA from sweat and saliva, allowing samples to be cross-referenced with millions of entries in national databases.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced on Wednesday that investigators had analyzed 150 forensic samples from the crime scene and abandoned objects, including DNA traces and fingerprints. One thief’s DNA was recovered from the broken window and other items, while the second’s was found on a motor scooter located by police.
A team of over 100 officers has been working tirelessly to apprehend the culprits before they could dismantle the jewelry into individual stones or melt down the precious metals for sale. To date, no recovery has been publicly announced.
The heist has left a deep sense of loss, not just for the Louvre but for the wider world of art and culture.
In a written statement, Olivier Gabet, the museum’s decorative arts director, described his experience entering the Apollo Gallery on the night of the heist to assist police. He recalled being “overwhelmed by the icy silence” and the haunting sight of mostly empty display stands where precious objects once rested, though he noted a few items had been overlooked by the thieves.
Mr. Ledsinger, the Houston visitor, was evacuated before he could fully appreciate the stolen jewels. He reflected on the profound significance of such artifacts, stating, “That’s world history. That’s why we are there, to see and experience and to immerse ourselves in what it was like back then.”
Back in Indianapolis, Ms. Barker, still captivated by the memory of the jewels she admired before her hurried exit, continues to follow the news, holding onto hope that the treasures—especially the emerald and diamond necklace—will be recovered intact.
“I think I’m one of the last people to truly see and admire that necklace,” she said, a poignant observation.