What seemed perhaps not impossible, but improbable, happened on Sunday, October 19, 2025. That day, four hooded men accessed the Apollo gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris via a staircase. . One of the most famous and iconic art centers in the world and which should also be one of the safest was desecrated by a gang of criminals.
Two days later, the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, released an estimate of the value of the damage caused to the Louvre by the theft. In statements collected by RTLthe prosecutor has indicated that After the evaluation of the museum curator, the amount rises to 88 million euros.
Beccuau has indicated that Although the sum is “extremely spectacular, it has no comparison with the historical damage” which has led to the theft of a series of pieces in the most important museum in France, which houses jewels of incalculable artistic value such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.
These sources wanted to make it clear that although the loss of the Louvre has been estimated at 88 million, this does not mean that the gang of criminals who took the jewels were going to win that amount “If they had the bad idea of melting these jewels“.
Set consisting of a diadem from Queen María Amelia and Queen Hortensia, a necklace from the sapphire set of the same queens and an earring from the same set stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris.
On the other hand, Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture of France, stated in the National Assembly that “the museum’s security devices did not fail. The reality is that they worked. Perhaps we should ask ourselves, and this is something that we are discussing with the Minister of the Interior, but also with the Paris City Council, about safety on public roads, which at that time did not exist“.
How to collect Dati also spoke about the enormous damage, not only economic but moral, that has been caused by the robbery in the most emblematic museum in France: “What happened on Sunday is not a banal incident. It is a serious attack on our historical heritage. “This is a wound for all of us because the Louvre is the screen of French culture and our heritage.”
The stolen pieces and the one that could be recovered
The thieves They took the Tiara of Empress Eugenia, a piece that belonged to the Spanish Eugenia de Montijo and is adorned with 212 pearls and 1,998 diamonds. They also stole the Brooch of Empress Eugenie, a jewel with 2,438 diamonds, Queen Marie Louise’s emerald necklace and earringsgifts from Napoleon totaling 32 emeralds and 1,138 diamonds, as well as a sapphire tiara, necklace and earrings set of Queens María Amelia and Hortensia and a Reliquary Brooch with 92 diamonds.
The thieves also took the crown of Empress Eugenia de Montijo, a jewel of enormous value that lost along the way and was damaged. It is made up of 1,354 diamonds, 1,136 pink diamonds and 56 emeralds.
