The French prosecutor’s office on Tuesday estimated the damage caused by the jewels stolen on Sunday from the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre museum: 88 million euros, according to Parisian prosecutor Laure Beccuau. An “extremely spectacular” sum, but one that ““It has no parallel or comparison with the historical damage,” the prosecutor added to RTL. These same sources specify that the criminals “would not win” this sum “if they had the terrible idea of melting these jewels.”
The French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, stated in the National Assembly that “the museum’s security devices did not fail. The reality is that they worked.” Rachida Dati preferred to raise the problem of street surveillance, since the thieves entered the museum through a window using a forklift parked on the street on the Seine side. “Perhaps we should ask ourselves, and this is something that we are discussing with the Minister of the Interior, but also with the Paris City Council, about safety on public roads, which at that time did not exist,” he said.
“What happened on Sunday is not a trivial incident. It is a serious attack on our historical heritage,” said the head of Culture. And he added: “This is a wound for all of us, because the Louvre is the screen of French culture and our heritage.” Regarding the fact that potential security problems at the museum were known, the minister acknowledged that alerts had been received for “a long time, I would say too long.” But he added that this was why the museum’s director, Laurence des Cars, had commissioned safety audits in 2022, 2023 and 2024 that had resulted in a series of recommendations that “are being implemented.”
He also spoke about the restructuring of the security control centers, with the creation of a central one, and the fiber optic and computer networks, which means installing “kilometers of cable” and which is also something that is being done. The minister highlighted that this takes time for two reasons: because the rules of a heritage building such as the Louvre impose more complex procedures in many cases, but also because of the rules of public competitions, which require months of procedures before the works can begin. Regarding potential responsibilities, Dati stated that once the conclusions of the investigations are reached, “if measures have to be taken, they will be taken and we will draw the consequences.”
Last Sunday, four hooded men entered the Apollo gallery via a staircase, broke the display cases and stole the jewels of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenia de Montijo. French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said last Monday that the assault “gives a regrettable image of France.” “They were able to park a truck with a moving ladder in the middle of Paris, go up and in a few minutes steal jewels of incalculable value,” he explained to describe the unusual theft.
These are the nine stolen pieces that have now been known to be worth 88 million euros:
- The headband. It first belonged to Queen Hortensia, daughter of Josephine (Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife) and later passed to Maria Amenia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. It has 84 sapphires and 1083 diamonds.
- A necklace and two sapphire earrings. Both monarchs wear those jewels that have now disappeared in many of the portraits of the time.
- Another necklace and María Luisa’s emerald earrings. Napoleon Bonaparte gave them to his second wife. They have a total of 38 emeralds and 1,146 diamonds.
- The diadem of Empress Eugenie. It is a jewel that Napoleon III gave her on her wedding day. It has 212 pearls and 2,000 diamonds
- Two brooches: the locket brooch (with 18 heart-shaped diamonds) and the large bodice bow, with a cascade of pink diamonds.
- And the crown recovered. Shortly after the assault, Eugenia’s crown was found, made up of 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, the damage to which is being assessed after the assailants lost it along the way.