How audacious Louvre heist unfolded

A brazen robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris on Sunday – the most
spectacular since the Mona Lisa was stolen last century – saw thieves
make off with several items from the surviving French crown jewels

FRA
PARIS
Louvre
LOUVRE

Mona Lisa
(LEONARDO DA
VINCI, 1452-1519)
Stolen: 1911
Recovered: 1913

Petite
Galerie

R. Seine

Room 705:
Galerie
d’Apollon
Home to
French crown
jewels since
1887

1. Thieves use
“monte-meuble”
truck-mounted
conveyor belt
(normally used to
move furniture in and
out of Parisian apartments) to enter (and exit)

2. Angle
grinder used to
cut balcony
door open

3. Once inside, robbers
smash two glass cases
housing remaining
crown jewels (most of
them were lost or sold
after 1789 French
Revolution) and take
eight items including
diadems, necklaces,
earrings and brooches

Pearl diadem once
belonging to Empress
Eugénie, wife of

Sources: BBC, New York Times, Reuters, AP, Louvre Napoleon III, stolen
Pictures: Apple Maps, Getty Images, Louvre
© GRAPHIC NEWS