The world-famous Louvre Museum inParis is closed for the day after a dramatic daylight robbery.
FrenchInterior Minister Laurent Nuñez said thieves used a cherrypicker to gain access, forced a window, smashed display cases and escaped with jewels of"inestimable value".
Culture Minister Rachida Dati said investigations were under way.
"I am on site alongside the museum teams and the police," she said, on X.
Posting on the same social network, the Musée du Louvre said it would"remain closed today for exceptional reasons".
The Interior Ministry several intruders forced open a window, stole jewels from vitrines and fled on two-wheelers about 9.30am on Sunday (6.30pm AEDT).
It said forensic work was under way and a precise inventory of the stolen objects was being compiled.
Nuñez described a"major robbery" saying the intruders "entered from the outside using a basket lift", that the operation lasted seven minutes, and that the panes were cut with a disc cutter.
"[It was] manifestly a team that had done scouting," he told France Inter.
The Interior Ministry specified the location as the Galerie d'Apollon
Le Parisien reported that the criminals entered the world's most visited museum and former palace via the Seine-facing facade, where construction is under way.
They reportedly stole"nine pieces from the jewellery collection of Napoleon and the Empress".
Citing early investigative findings, the paper said one stolen jewel, believed to be Empress Eugénie's crown, was found broken outside the museym.
The Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous was in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat. It was recovered two years later in Florence — an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci's portrait the world's best-known artwork.
In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armour were stolen from the Louvre and only recovered nearly four decades later. The museum's collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting that continues to spark restitution debates today.
The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works spanning antiquities, sculpture and painting — from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to European masters. Its star attractions include the Mona Lisa, as well as the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The Galerie d'Apollon, where Sunday's theft reportedly took place, displays a selection of the French Crown Jewels.
The museum can draw up to 30,000 visitors a day.
