A robbery was committed at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday morning, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati announced. The perpetrators took nine pieces from Emperor Napoleon's jewelry collection and then fled on a motorbike. The robbery was carried out in just seven minutes.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati has confirmed that a robbery has taken place at the Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the world's most famous and visited cultural institutions, the BBC reports.

"We are not aware of any injuries," the minister wrote in his post, who rushed to the scene and is at the institution with the museum team and the police. The investigation is currently ongoing.

They entered the building with hoods on their heads.

According to information from Le Parisien, the perpetrators, wearing hoods, entered the building, which is currently undergoing renovations, from the Seine side. They took a freight elevator directly to their target, the Apollo Gallery, and worked with a battery-powered chainsaw.

After breaking the glass, two men entered the room while a third remained outside to guard. In seven minutes, the thieves stole nine pieces of jewelry from the jewelry collection of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Empress: a necklace, a brooch, and a tiara. The valuables were placed in the Napoleon display cases.

According to museum sources, the famous Regent diamond, also known as the Pitt diamond, which weighs more than 140 carats and is the largest gem in the collection, did not fall into the hands of the thieves. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, and according to the newspaper, the perpetrators fled on a TMax motorbike towards the A6 motorway.

The Minister of the Interior will provide information on the details of the investigation

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed on France Inter radio that there were no injuries at the Louvre. “People had to be evacuated primarily to preserve traces and evidence so that investigators can work in peace,” the minister said.

The French interior minister acknowledged that French museums are “very vulnerable,” but stressed that “not everything can be prevented.” Nunez said that everything would be done to quickly apprehend the perpetrators, who “may be foreigners.”

The Paris prosecutor's office announced that it had opened an investigation into suspicions of theft and conspiracy to commit a crime by an organized criminal group. The investigation is being conducted"by the Special Anti-Crime Unit (BRB) with the support of the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC)." "The extent of the damage is being assessed, and investigations are ongoing," the prosecutor's office added.

The mayor of the central district of Paris, Ariel Weil, also spoke out, calling the robbery “shocking.” He also said that the incident inevitably raises security questions. “It’s like we’re in the Lupin series, so far it’s been a movie script. It’s hard to imagine that it’s so easy to rob the Louvre,” Weil said. He added that the “unexpected closure of the site is causing a serious public order problem.”

The museum is closed.

The Louvre announced via its official social media page that the institution will remain closed to visitors today for"exceptional reasons."

The Apollo Gallery is one of the most important spaces in the museum and the Louvre Palace, housing some of the museum's most valuable historical collections. The gallery officially reopened to the public on January 15, 2020, after museological transformation and renovation works.

The Louvre houses one of the world's most valuable art collections, including world-famous works such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The institution's security measures are extremely strict, which makes what happened even more interesting.