5 More Arrests Over Louvre Crown Jewels Heist as New Details Emerge

Five more arrests have been made in the hunt for the thieves who stole some of the French Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum, after two men were charged, French authorities announced on Oct. 30.

One of the five is a man identified by DNA as one of the suspected thieves, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said, as the complex, high-speed investigation spread across the French capital and into the suburbs.

A total of seven individuals have been arrested in separate, late-night operations in Paris and nearby Seine-Saint-Denis, and two men arrested on Oct. 25 have “partially” admitted to their role in the broad-daylight heist on Oct. 19.

Beccuau told RTL radio that one of the five latest detainees is suspected of being part of the four-man team that carried out the smash-and-grab of the Napoleonic treasures from the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery at about 9:30 a.m., half an hour after the museum opened to the public.

The prosecutor said the suspect whose DNA is linked to the scene of the crime was “one of the objectives of the investigators.”

She noted that the other four people taken into custody “may be able to inform [investigators] about how the events unfolded, but she did not release details of their relationship to the man suspected of being part of the four-man gang of thieves.

Jewels Remain Unrecovered

The loot remains unrecovered, amid fears that the precious pieces might have already been dismantled and broken down to be made into unrecognizable items for sale on the regular jewelry and gemstones market.

The stolen pieces—valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) but described as priceless in terms of their cultural significance—include crown jewels worn by 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense and a pearl-and-diamond tiara that belonged to Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte.

Authorities, including French police and the museum management, have acknowledged there were serious gaps in security at the Louvre, which has been the target of numerous thefts in the past, including the famed one-man heist of the “Mona Lisa” in 1911.

Former bank robber David Desclos, who now works as a stand-up comedian, said that in 2020, he had warned the Louvre of obvious vulnerabilities in the layout of the Apollo Gallery after they invited him onto the museum’s in-house podcast to discuss previous heists.

The audacious theft sent shockwaves across France and led to questions for politicians and the police about how the country guards its national treasures.

Alarm Raised by Cyclist

It was revealed by the Paris police chief that the first call they received alerting them to the robbery came not from museum staff but from a cyclist who witnessed the helmet-wearing thieves with the basket-lift used to carry out the crime.

Both of the earlier detainees, who were charged on Oct. 29 with theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy, lived in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, the prosecutor said.

The two men spent 96 hours in custody before they were charged after giving what Beccuau described as “minimalist” statements of their alleged involvement in the heist.

One of the two charged was stopped at Charles de Gaulle Airport with a one-way ticket to his native Algeria. He was known to the police for driving offenses.

Traces of his DNA were recovered from a high-powered scooter used in the getaway.

Known to Police

The older of the two men charged was arrested near his home, Beccuau told the media on Oct. 29, and is known to the police for theft offenses, including the targeting of ATMs. He told police he worked as an unlicensed taxi driver and had previously worked as a delivery driver.

The thieves left behind a number of items, including gloves and a high-visibility jacket. Investigators have said that they believe that two of the men wore the bright yellow jackets to make themselves look like construction workers.

The gang used a stolen truck with a basket lift, often used in construction or for moving furniture, to break into the Apollo Gallery, smashing their way into a window that was not covered by the CCTV. Angle grinders were used to force open the glass display cases housing the treasures, and the robbery lasted between seven and eight minutes in total.

The two men charged are suspected of being the pair who entered the gallery and snatched the jewels, with their descent in the truck lift caught on camera, before they joined another two members of the gang and sped away.

Multiple agencies and more than 100 special investigators have been involved in the fast-moving operation to catch the thieves and track down the jewels, poring over CCTV footage from in and around Paris and from the museum itself.

The prosecutor said there is no evidence currently that the theft was carried out with insider help from Louvre staff, although investigators are not ruling out a wider network of criminals involved beyond the gang of four caught on camera.

More than 2,200 people were working at the Louvre as of July 2024, and the museum has attracted up to 9 million visitors a year recently.

The prosecutor is the only person permitted to speak publicly about developments in investigations to avoid compromising police work.

“I want to remain hopeful that [the jewels] will be found and they can be brought back to the Louvre, and more broadly to the nation,” Beccuau said on Oct. 29.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.