“Le Cas Du Siécle” Priceless Jewels Stolen from the Louvre

PARIS (10-20) — On the cool and overcast Sunday morning of October 19, a small group of professional robbers using a truck-mounted lift platform parked on the sidewalk below the second-floor balcony of the Galerie d'Apollon (Apollo Gallery) at the Louve museum, entered the building through a window they removed in a wooden door by using an abrasive disk saw. Once inside, they methodically set about smashing the glass cases housing the French Crown Jewels of the Napoleonic jewelry collection of inestimable value before swiftly escaping with two accomplices riding fast Yamaha TMax scooters. During their escape, it was reported that the thieves dropped and damaged “a crown made from gold, emeralds and diamonds worn by Empress Eugénie.”

Among the treasures taken, as reported by People magazine, were “a sapphire tiara, a sapphire necklace and a single sapphire earring worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense; a matching emerald necklace and emerald earrings worn by Marie-Louise (Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife); a tiara and large brooch that belonged to Empress Eugénie; and a brooch known as the “reliquary brooch.”

In the aftermath of what is being called “Le Cas Du Siécle,” visitors in the museum were swiftly ushered out, and the museum closed as police began their investigation. Soon afterward, a nationwide manhunt began in the hopes of catching the thieves before they had time to dismantle and melt their precious booty.

The irony of stealing the royal jewelry was not lost on anyone with the theft happening on the following day of the “No Kings Day” protest in the city that called for resistance to Donald Trump’s move to establish himself as a king of America.

Early this afternoon a few hours after the robbery a crowd of media along with spectators had assembled across the street from the Apollo Gallery watching as police crime scene investigators (CSI) examined the balcony after removing the white paper they had installed on the windows where the thieves had entered the gallery. CSI technicians carefully processed the scene using swabs to gather evidence from the windowpanes and placed them in test tubes for laboratory analysis.

The window where the thieves made entry into the gallery showed very precise cuts at the top and bottom of the wooden frame and along the edge of the remaining window glass which, while shattered on the left side of the pane, remained in situ.

This unfortunately is not the first time the museum has been the victim of a robbery. Its most famous case occurred in 1911 when La Joconde, (Mona Lisa) was cut from its frame by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian craftsman who had worked for a short time there reframing and glazing paintings. Historically, the Louvre has had many of its treasures stolen over the years and at one time in the early 20th century the refrain of “I’m off to the Louvre; may I pick anything up for you?” was often used as visitors liberated small pocket collections that were poorly guarded.

All this points towards the unreliable and outdated state of security that the massive museum employs in guarding against such thefts of its multitude of treasures. In the modern era of highly sophisticated computerized and video security systems that are employed worldwide to circumvent such tragedies, one must wonder how a major institution can have such a failing in guarding the nations patrimony.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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