Crown Jewels Stolen From Louvre After Dramatic Heist in Broad Daylight

Several crown jewels from Napoleon's time were stolen from the famed Louvre yesterday, leaving officials stunned after the thieves waltzed into the museum in broad daylight.

The heist lasted just a few minutes as the thieves entered the building, grabbed the jewels, and escaped, successfully executing one of the most – if not the most – notorious heists in France's history. Meanwhile, the jewels were priceless and have immense historical value, as they belong to Napoleon's time.

The heist began at around 9:30 am local time and was complete just a few minutes later, involving four perpetrators. They arrived on the scene in ski masks, assembling on the side of the museum that faces the Seine River. Construction work had already been going on in this area, allowing the robbers to utilize a basket lift to bring themselves up to a second-floor balcony. From here, two of the thieves entered directly into the Apollo Gallery, home to France's crown jewels, after using an angle grinder and several other power tools to slice through the glass.

Once inside, the thieves threatened the guards in the exhibit, who quickly moved away from the area, before smashing the glass display cases surrounding the jewels using a disc cutter. This triggered alarms across the museum, but the two robbers quickly made it out of the gallery and climbed down the ladder of the basket lift, where the other two were waiting. All four thieves successfully escaped on motorcycles, only dropping one item throughout the process.

The entire heist was extremely professional, planned, and clean, with no violence or injuries throughout the process. Nevertheless, the loss of the jewels is a huge loss to France. In total, after an assessment of the situation, authorities determined that the thieves had stolen a total of nine jewels from the museum.

One jewel, the Crown of Empress Eugenie, was dropped in the process, with police discovering the damaged item outside of the museum. According to one expert, the crown alone was likely worth tens of millions of dollars, and there were other items of greater importance in the collection, hinting at the incredible value of the items stolen by the robbers.

Officials have launched an intense investigation into the heist, hoping to recover the jewels within several days. Forensics teams, analysis teams, and dozens of others are currently sweeping the area for any evidence as to where the thieves could have gone, but they have not released their findings yet.

However, France's greatest fear is that the thieves will melt the jewels down– this would fail to preserve their true value, but ensures that the robbers are not caught for their actions. If this happens, it would be a huge loss for France as a nation, as that process of melting them down is irreversible. Because of this, authorities are working to find the items as soon as possible, before they could be lost for eternity.

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