Two weeks after the spectacular robbery of the Louvre Museum, investigators arrested 7 people and indicted 4, including a couple aged 37 and 38.
Although the mobilization of around a hundred investigators and the analysis of more than 150 DNA samples made these arrests possible, the jewelry has not yet been found. “I want to keep the hope of finding them”indicated the Paris public prosecutor during a press conference on October 29, adding: “there is still time to return them”.
Timeline of the investigation
Sunday October 19, 2025
9:34 a.m. Two people enter the Apollon gallery (located in the Denon wing) using a bucket truck which they park four minutes before alongside the museum on the Quai François Mitterrand while two other people wait downstairs. “The alarm detector positioned on the door is triggered immediately and transmits a signal to the security station” Laurence des Cars would later explain. Using grinders they opened a breach in two windows of the gallery and took away nine pieces. Four guards are then present in the gallery, they warn the security PC “and make it safe” the rare visitors present (the museum opens at 9 a.m. and it takes 5 to 10 minutes to reach the gallery).
9:38 a.m. The thieves leave the gallery through the same window. They try to set the truck on fire but are prevented from doing so by security and police officers who are heading towards the truck. They flee on a scooter, dropping Empress Eugenie’s crown, which has been damaged.
The Ministry of Culture communicates the list of stolen objects in the evening. Later, the Louvre indicated that their value is estimated at 88 million euros.
- Tiara from the adornment of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense
- Necklace from the sapphire parure of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense
- Earring from a sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense
- Emerald necklace from Marie-Louise’s set
- Pair of emerald earrings from Marie-Louise’s set
- Brooch called “reliquary brooch” (Empress Eugenie)
- Tiara of Empress Eugénie
- Large bodice bow of Empress Eugénie (shoulder brooch).
Saturday October 25, 2025
A 34-year-old suspect, of Algerian nationality, is arrested at 8 p.m. at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport “while he was preparing to go to Algeria without a return ticket to France”according to the Paris public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau. The second suspect, aged 39, was arrested the same day at 8:40 p.m. near his home in Aubervilliers.
Wednesday October 29, 2025
The two suspects arrested on October 25 are indicted for “organized gang theft”For “criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime” and imprisoned.
In the evening, five people were arrested. Two will be indicted on November 1 while the custody of the three others is lifted. It concerns a 37-year-old man and his partner, a 38-year-old woman.
According to the Paris public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, the profile of the criminals arrested does not relate to serious crime.
