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It took less than 10 minutes. At 9.30am on Sunday, four men arrived in a truck outside the Louvre in Paris, driving right up under a balcony and setting up a ladder with a furniture hoist. Two of them casually climbed up to the balcony and cut through the reinforced glass of a window; on the other side of the glass was the Apollo gallery, the most ornate and arguably the most beautiful room in the museum, Helen Pidd hears. Using an angle grinder, they broke into cases holding France’s crown jewels, before escaping back down the ladder and disappearing on motorbikes.
The audacious burglary of one of the most famous museums in the world has shocked France, especially because the jewels had been bought back for the nation after originally being sold, reports the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis.
The art detective Arthur Brand has spent his life hunting down stolen Picassos, artefacts and even Oscar Wilde’s ring. He explains what may have motivated the thieves to choose such a high-profile target and why time is of the essence if the jewellery is to be found in one piece.
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