Masked thieves steal ‘priceless’ jewels from the Louvre museum : NPR

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Alexander Turnbull/AP PARIS — A brazen theft on the Louvre Museum in Paris Sunday morning has left investigators trying to find a number of males who made off with what officers describe as "priceless" jewels.

A spokesperson for the museum instructed NPR the suspects entered shortly after the museum opened, breaking in by means of a window that led to the Apollo Gallery, which homes among the museum's most useful treasures. Armed with small chainsaws and field cutters, they smashed show instances earlier than fleeing on Yamaha TMax scooters towards a close-by freeway.

Authorities say the precise listing of stolen objects continues to be being drawn up, however the items are believed to come back from the museum's Napoleonic assortment.

Tradition Minister Rachida Dati instructed the French TV channel TF1 that one of many stolen jewels was later discovered close to the museum, apparently deserted because the thieves fled.

The Louvre spokesperson described the objects as being of "inestimable cultural and historic worth."

France's Inside Minister, Laurent Nuñez, known as the theft "a significant, extremely organized operation" that lasted simply seven minutes. "There is a judicial investigation underway," Nuñez instructed France Inter radio, including the lacking objects had been "of true heritage worth – actually priceless."

Nuñez mentioned the robbers used a carry platform mounted on a truck to succeed in a window earlier than breaking in. He mentioned there have been three to 4 suspects in complete, describing them as "a really skilled staff that acted extraordinarily shortly," and including that every one central police items in Paris have been mobilized to trace them down.