Louvre crown jewel thieves could soften down stolen loot, ex-FBI skilled warns

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The gang of thieves who robbed the Louvre Museum on Sunday and made off with a few of France’s most well-known crown jewels would possibly find yourself melting their loot down, an ex-FBI artwork crime skilled mentioned.

Tim Carpenter additionally recommended the team of robbers behind the "surprising" operation had been targeted on treasures of immense cultural and historic worth.

"This was a focused heist," Carpenter told Fox Information Digital.

"They knew exactly what they had been going for, they usually understood the worth and the cultural significance of those items," he continued. "In addition they understood that this was terribly necessary to the individuals of France."

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Forensic law enforcement officials arrive on the Louvre Museum after studies of a theft, in Paris, France, October 19, 2025. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Additionally "surprising," Carpenter famous, "is that it was a daytime theft whereas the museum was open."

The Louvre was pressured to shut its doorways following the daring morning theft , which occurred in underneath seven minutes and left police racing to get better the jewels.

The raid, at round 9:30 a.m. native time, focused the museum’s Apollo Gallery, residence to historic treasures linked to Napoleon and Empress Eugénie.

The crew reportedly stole a crown believed to have belonged to Empress Eugénie, Le Parisien reported.

In response to The Associated Press , eight objects had been taken, together with a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from an identical set linked to Nineteenth-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.

An emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise had been additionally reportedly snatched alongside a reliquary brooch, Empress Eugénie’s diadem and her massive corsage-bow brooch.

"They might be melted down or pieced out," Carpenter defined. "They're going to punch stones out of the crowns, they usually'll reduce the stones, they usually'll market them individually."

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Thieves executed a daytime heist on the Louvre Museum, stealing French crown jewels. (Thibault Camus/AP)

In response to French each day Le Parisien, the thieves, two of whom had been disguised as building employees, entered the museum after parking subsequent to it. They prolonged a raise to a first-floor window and smashed it open with an angle grinder.

The time "is when the museum is form of its most chaotic. Individuals are getting settled," added Carpenter.

"They breached by way of a window and made this actually brazen. These guys are quick and transferring rapidly with a objective, they usually breach, they usually get in there actually rapidly," he added.

After the heist, Inside Minister Laurent Nuñez spoke to radio station France Inter and mentioned the thieves "entered from the surface utilizing a basket raise" and "a disc cutter" to slice by way of glass panes containing valuable jewels.

"The investigation has begun, and an in depth record of the stolen gadgets is being compiled," the ministry additionally mentioned in an announcement. "Past their market worth, these things have inestimable heritage and historic worth."

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The Louvre is the world's largest and sure most crowded museum. (iStock)

"As a result of it is a historic constructing, there are simply pure vulnerabilities that happen, and these guys simply discovered a kind of and located a approach to exploit it," Carpenter mentioned.

"That's positively a threat," he continued. "Whenever you take a look at a constructing just like the Louvre… there at all times needs to be a stability."

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"I believe the native authorities there have a really robust probability of doing a very efficient legal investigation, figuring out these perpetrators and hopefully recovering these items earlier than they're misplaced to us," concluded Carpenter.

Fox Information Digital reached out to the Louvre Museum for remark.

Emma Bussey is a breaking information author for Fox Information Digital. Earlier than becoming a member of Fox, she labored at The Telegraph with the U.S. in a single day staff, throughout desks together with overseas, politics, information, sport and tradition.