The Louvre has reopened to the public, three days after thieves forced open a window and stole French crown jewels in a daring, daylight raid on the museum.
The Louvre reopened on Wednesday to long lines beneath its landmark Paris glass pyramid, just three days after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world for its audacity and scale.
The thieves slipped in and out of the world’s most visited museum — making off with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels — a cultural wound that some officials compared to the burning of Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019.
The Sunday raid — steps from the Mona Lisa and valued at more than $100 million — has put embattled President Emmanuel Macron and Louvre chief Laurence des Cars under fresh scrutiny. It comes just months after a staff strike warned of chronic understaffing and under-resourced protections, with too few eyes on too many rooms, raising pointed questions about security failures.
Crowds bunched at the barriers as they were being removed Wednesday, a coda to frantic forensic work and staff briefings that had taken place. Inside, the scene of the crime — the Apollo Gallery housing the Crown Diamonds — stayed sealed, a folding screen obscuring the doorway at the gallery’s rotunda entrance.
Three days on, the stolen jewels remain missing and the thieves are still at large.
Authorities say the thieves spent less than four minutes inside the Louvre on Sunday morning: a freight lift was wheeled to the Seine-facing façade, a window was forced open and two vitrines were smashed.
Then came the getaway on motorbikes through central Paris. Alarms had gone off drawing agents to the gallery and forcing the intruders to bolt.
