Manhunt underway for 4 suspects after heist of ‘priceless’ jewelry at Louvre in Paris
LONDON — As the alarms sounded at the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, four suspects took off on two motorbikes, winding their way through central Paris, allegedly carrying with them a haul of “priceless” jewelry once worn by queens and made of sapphire, diamonds and emeralds. They haven’t yet been found. About 24 hours after…
LONDON — As the alarms sounded at the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, four suspects took off on two motorbikes, winding their way through central Paris, allegedly carrying with them a haul of “priceless” jewelry once worn by queens and made of sapphire, diamonds and emeralds.
They haven’t yet been found.
About 24 hours after the brazen theft of some of the most recognizable pieces of glittering French heritage, which were taken during daylight hours from the world’s most-visited museum, a manhunt and investigation are in full swing, according to state and law enforcement officials.
“The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history,” President Emmanuel Macron said on social media on Sunday.
Tourists and visitors walk in front of the Louvre Museum next to French police officers after the museum was closed following a robbery, in Paris on Oct. 19, 2025.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
He and other French officials vowed that the pieces would be returned and the suspects apprehended. The museum closed on Sunday morning as police swarmed the area in search of suspects and evidence.
“Following yesterday’s robbery at the Louvre, the museum regrets to inform you that it will remain closed to the public today,” officials said in an update on social media on Monday. “Visitors who have already booked tickets will be refunded.”
7 minutes, in and out, authorities say
The suspects arrive in pairs, with two in a truck and two riding motorbikes, authorities said on Sunday. The truck was equipped with a moving ladder, a “mobile freight elevator” of the type city furniture movers sometimes use, Paris police said.
The suspects allegedly parked the truck on a road that runs along the side of the museum, near the Seine, police said.
Police officers look for clues by a basket lift used by thieves Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 at the Louvre museum in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
They were wearing yellow vests, dressed as construction workers might be, police said. They took the time to secure the area near the truck by placing orange construction cones around it, police said.
They then used the ladder to get up to the second floor, climbing onto a thin balcony with a metal railing outside the museum’s Apollo Gallery, where some of the French crown jewels were kept, according to police.
Pedestrians walk on Quai Francois Mitterrand as French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, in Paris on October 19, 2025.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Once they had used an angle grinder to open the window, they clambered through it, police said. Their entrance triggered the alarm, which was still sounding when they left, the museum said in a statement.
“Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry,” police said.
A member of a forensic team inspects a window believed to have been used in what the French Interior Ministry said was a robbery at the Louvre museum during which jewellery was stolen, in Paris, France, Oct. 19, 2025.
Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
When they left through the same window about seven minutes later, they had with them nine pieces of jewerly of “inestimable” value, as France’s interior minister described them on Sunday. Other officials, including Rachida Dati, the culture minister, described them to French media as “priceless.”
According to the French Ministry of Culture, among the items stolen was a diadem, or crown, from the collection of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from the collection of Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife; and a large bow brooch from Empress Eugenie’s bodice.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office said the perpetrators tried and failed to set fire to the mobile freight elevator they used in the heist before they fled the scene.
A ‘total’ investigation is underway
Officials at the museum said in a statement that an investigation had been launched into the “organized theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime.”
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will oversee the case, tapped a specialized group of detectives, the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry, which is part of the French National Police, to lead the investigation, according to the Louvre’s statement.
A police officer blocks an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, told a local TV station on Sunday that about 60 investigators were working on the case, showing “total determination” to find those responsible.
As of Monday morning, police had not yet said whether they had any leads on the possible identities of the suspects.
Officials said the suspects appeared to have been professionals. Beccuau on Sunday described it as an organized crime, saying officials hadn’t ruled out possible foreign involvement, but also that investigators were treating it as a domestic case at the moment.
“Everything is being done to apprehend the perpetrators of this unacceptable act as quickly as possible,” Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, said on Sunday.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Somayeh Malekian, Hugo Leenhardt, Camilla Alcini, Bill Hutchinson, Victoria Beaule, Dragana Jovanovic and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.