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October 17, 2025

Friday, October 17, 2025 - ,,, No comments

Five of the seven 18th-Century snuff boxes stolen from the Musée Cognacq-Jay have been recovered.

Five ornate snuff boxes stolen in a 2024 museum heist in France have been recovered.  Made of gold, precious stones, mother-of-pearl and enamel and valued at over €1M, the items had been stolen on 20 November 2024 from the Musée Cognacq-Jay, located in the Marais neighbourhood of the 3rd arrondissement of Paris.                                                                                     On that date, four individuals, armed with axes and baseball bats, burst into the museum during "Luxe de poche. Petits objets précieux au siècle des Lumières," a temporary exhibition showcasing a variety of intricate boxes representative of the Age of Enlightenment,  while the museum's patrons could do nothing but stand and watch.  Wearing gloves and having donned hoods and helmets to conceal their identities, the daylight smash-and-grab team bashed open a single display case containing high-value jewel boxes loaned for the event from the Château de Versailles, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Palais Galliera, the English Royal Collections and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In and out before police could arrive, the culprits made a hasty getaway on scooters, driving off into Paris traffic with a total of seven bejewelled boxes, 

Which five boxes have been recovered?

This gold snuff box dating from the 18th century and encrusted with agate cabochons made by Johann Christian Neuber, a famous Dresden goldsmith known for his gold Steinkabinettabatiere.  This object had been on loan from the Musée du Louvre. 

This snuff box made of agate plates dating from 1760-1770, with hard stone reliefs, joined by a gold cage mount, and a lid encrusted with numerous brilliant-cut diamonds,  was made by Daniel Baudesson, and also on loan from the Musée du Louvre. 


This weighty diamond-covered box belonging to King Charles III, described as a green jasper snuff-box, mounted with gold borders, finely chased with flowers and foliage in vari-coloured gold with panels and borders richly overlaid with baskets and sprays of flowers, trophies and foliage.  It has nearly three thousand diamonds backed with delicately coloured foils in shades of pink and yellow.


This chrysoprase snuffbox was made in Berlin, Germany, in c. 1765and is associated with Frederick II, the Great, of Prussia (1712-1786). Its been previously on display at the Somerset House as part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.


This diamond-encrusted, varicoloured-gold snuffbox, decorated with figures in neo-classical landscapes was once gifted to Thomas Dimsdale (1712-1800), by Catherine II during the Russian smallpox epidemic of 1768.  part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Police are still searching for:



Another snuff box made by Johann Christian Neuber, this one from c. 1780 which combined his own technique of Zellenmosaik, or mosaic of hardstones set into gold collets, with the technique of Roman micromosaics only then recently developed.  It is part of the Gilbert Collection ©,  The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

For now, the police and prosecutors remain tight-lipped on when or with whom these pieces were retrieved, but for now at least there has been some positive movement in the investigation. 

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