The new brushed-steel cabinets housed the royal collection of gems and the Crown Diamonds, or what remains of them, which were previously exhibited in two separate places in the Decorative Arts Department.  Placed in single file along the center of the room, one after the other, the aim was to provide visitors with a comprehensive and historical overview of the museum's unique jewellery creations and their symbolic importance in terms of France's monarchical identity, from the Ancien Régime to the Second Empire. 

The first display case housed jewellery dating from before the Revolution. The second displayed jewellery from the First Empire, the Restoration, and the July Monarchy, while the third display case housed jewellery from the Second Empire, including remnants of Empress Eugénie's grand finery. 

Once inside the museum, two accomplices are said to have used an angle grinder to break open two of the new vitrines which housed the jewels of the Second Empire (1852–1870) and the sovereigns' jewels (1800–1852). 

In just seven minutes, the perpetrators were in and out of the Louvre, carrying away  eight priceless pieces from the French collection, before making a hasty getaway on two Yamaha TMax scooters they also drove to the scene.  Filmed by CCTV cameras, the jewel thieves appear to have left the museum heading in the direction of the A6 motorway and are said to have dropped one of the nine pieces they initially grabbed. 

Initial reports, including one by a witness passing by on a bike, indicate that there were four perpetrators in total: two who dressed as workmen, each wearing a yellow or orange safety vest who ascended the cherry-picker and broke into the museum's gallery.   Two other accomplices  waited below the museum's windows before all for left the museum on the waiting scooters at 9:38, headed in the direction of the Hôtel de Ville. 

Shortly after the incident CL Press posted a video of a motorcycle helmet which was one of several objects found with or underneath the abandoned cherry picker truck.  Taken into evidence, these items may allow for the identification of one or more of the robbers through DNA traces.

According to the press release issued by the  French Ministry of Culture, the eight stolen jewellery items are:

This tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

This necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

An earring, one of a pair from the sapphire parure of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense;

This emerald necklace from the set of Marie-Louise;

This pair of emerald earrings from Marie-Louise's set.

This Reliquary brooch;

This tiara of Empress Eugenie;

And this large bodice bow of Empress Eugenie (brooch).

A ninth item, the Crown of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, set with numerous emeralds and diamonds and created by Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, was dropped by the criminals during their escape and its condition is "under examination".

Immediately after the incident, the Louvre was shuttered for the day as the Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation in partnership with the Criminal Investigation Department's Anti-Banditism Brigade (BRB) with the support of the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC).   

Frances crown jewels have always had a tough go of it.  

Between September 11 and 16 in 1792, amid the chaotic events of the French Revolution, and days before the storming of the Bastille, a group of thieves staged a burglary over multiple nights, breaking into the poorly guarded Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (Crown Furniture Storehouse), a grand building on Place de la Concorde (then called Place Louis XV then Place de la Révolution) in Paris.  Over a series of days these accomplices helped themselves to diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies, many considered priceless due to their association with the French monarchy. Three of the most important pieces taken (some later recovered) were the Sancy Diamond, the Regent Diamond, and the Blue Diamond of the Crown (a large blue diamond some believe was later recut to become the Hope Diamond which is now housed at the Smithsonian, however, that theory remains unconfirmed). It was a revolutionary cultural property loss to which France never fully recovered.

Luckily, the Regent was found the following year, in 1792 which allowed Napoleon to display it on his coronation sword on December 2, 1804. 

After the revolutionary debacle, successive monarchies endeavoured to bring parts of the treasure back, but with only limited success.

Fast forward almost two centuries later and the Louvre’s standout jewel theft was an armed night-time raid, which, like today's daylight theft, impacted the Galerie d’Apollon.  On 16 December 1976, three masked burglars climbed a metal scaffolding set up by workers cleaning the facade of the former palace at dawn and assaulted two guards.  After entering the gallery they broke into a glass display case and made off with the diamond-studded ceremonial sword made in 1824 by Frederic Bapst for the coronation of King Charles X, leaving behind his stirrups and saddle.  

That piece has never been recovered. 

It is surreal to think that these stolen objects, symbols of empire, artistry, and craftsmanship, might now be lost forever.  Beyond their material worth, these jewels are part of Europe's collective heritage: tangible links to empires powerfully built and faded, a testament to French culture, and to her power.

The loss is not only France’s, but the world’s.

By:  Lynda Albertson