The Louvre in Paris will be closed on Sunday due to “exceptional reasons.” The world-famous French museum was robbed after it opened between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m. Police were on the scene and are investigating together with museum staff, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati announced. The minister said there were no injuries, as quoted by the BBC.

It is not yet known who the perpetrators were, but according to Le Parisien there may have been 3-4 people who broke the window, stole jewelry, and then opened fire.

in just seven minutes

Napoleon's jewelry collection may have been looted

According to the French newspaper, citing preliminary results of the police investigation, the masked/hooded robbers entered the building from the Seine, where renovation work is currently underway. They used a mobile freight elevator to reach the window of the room they were looking at (on our cover photo, Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP) on the first floor of the Apollo Gallery, which houses the museum's most valuable historical collections. It is not yet clear whether the machine was there for the renovation work or if the robbers themselves parked it there.

The window was broken, two people entered, the third watched outside. A total of nine jewels were taken, from the jewelry collection of Napoleon and the Empress:

• a necklace,
• a brooch,
• a tiara and
• other jewels that were in the showcases of Napoleon and the French monarchs.

The newspaper understands that the famous 140-carat (28.128 gram) Regent Diamond, also kept here and estimated to be worth 56 million euros (20 billion forints), could not be taken away.

One of the jewels, allegedly the crown of Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon III, was dropped during the escape, and the authorities found the damaged artifact.

It is an invaluable historical and cultural asset.

Panic in the museum

The newspaper also reported, citing witnesses, that panic broke out in the Louvre during the robbery, which took place during the morning opening. On the one hand, the police rushed past the famous glass pyramid, but were unable to enter because the glass doors were locked. Meanwhile, those inside were unable to get out through them, running here and there and banging on the doors.

The perpetrators allegedly fled with their loot on Yamaha TMax scooters towards the A6 motorway heading southeast from the French capital.

French Interior Minister and former Paris police chief Laurent Nunez will hold a press conference on the case this afternoon.

Le Parisien recalls a robbery in 1792, when the French crown jewels were stolen using similar methods: the perpetrators climbed the facade and broke the window. The paper also reminds us that this month marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the Italian thief Vincenzo Peruggia, who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911.