The Louvre Museum in Paris has announced its temporary closure as authorities delve into the shocking theft of valuable historical jewelry. Experts caution that the chances of retrieving the stolen treasures remain bleak.

In a statement on X, the museum expressed regret over its closure on Monday, as the nation grapples with the audacious heist that saw criminals make off with pieces from the French crown jewels, artifacts dating back to the Napoleonic era.

Concerns are mounting that these priceless items might be dismantled and sold by the perpetrators or have already been smuggled out of France.

The audacious thieves employed a truck-mounted ladder to access the Apollo Gallery—one of the Louvre’s most lavish rooms—via a window.

Once inside, they used tools like an angle grinder and a blowtorch to break into two high-security display cases, making off with the precious items.

Armed with tools including an angle grinder and a blowtorch, they targeted two high-security display cases.

The entire operation lasted just seven minutes, authorities said, with the suspects fleeing on motorcyles.

Among the items taken from the Louvre was a diamond and sapphire jewellery set including a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense.

The diadem – a jewelled headpiece worn by royalty – features 24 Ceylon sapphires and 1083 diamonds that can be detached and worn as brooches, according to the Louvre.

Also stolen was an emerald necklace and earrings set that was a wedding gift from Napoleon to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, in March 1810, containing 32 intricately cut emeralds and 1138 diamonds.

Eight of the nine items taken remain unaccounted for.

Wider implications for France

French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin admitted that the Louvre heist exposed security failings at the museum.

“One can wonder about the fact that, for example, the windows hadn’t been secured, about the fact that a basket lift was on a public road,” he said on France Inter radio. “What is certain is that we have failed.”

“The French people all feel like they’ve been robbed,” he said.

Elaine Sciolino, author of Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum, emphasised the significance of a robbery at the Louvre, which was originally built as a fortress before becoming a palace for the French royal family.

“This attack really is a dagger into the heart of France and French history,” she said.

Will the jewellery be recovered?

Natalie Goulet, a Centrist member of the French senate, told CNN on Monday that she believes the jewellery has probably already been taken out of the country.

“I think that the pieces are already abroad,” she said. “I think it’s lost forever.”

Goulet also appeared on BBC Radio about the prospects of recovering the jewellery, replying: “None.”

“The jewellery will be cut up and sold and used as a money-laundering system,” she said. “It’s the easiest way to clean dirty money.”

The robbery was probably linked to organised crime, Goulet said.

Christopher Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International, said that if the thieves are just looking to get cash out as quickly as possible, they might melt down the precious metals or recut the stones with no regard for the piece’s integrity.

“We need to break up these gangs and find another approach, or we’re going to lose things that we are never going to see again,” Marinello said.

The most well-known robbery at the Louvre took place in August 1911, when Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting was stolen off the museum’s walls by handyman Vincenzo Peruggia.

It was 24 hours before anyone even noticed the Mona Lisa was missing, with artworks often removed to be photographed or cleaned.

A bungling police investigation then dragged on for two years before the painting was recovered in December 1913, making it the most famous artwork in the world.

More recently, a work by French painter Camille Corot was stolen from its frame in 1998 and has never been found.

More recent heists at other European museums include the theft of four ancient gold artefacts from a museum in the Netherlands in January.