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Louvre museum heist: French authorities hunt 4 thieves who fled on high-powered scooters
The thieves threatened museum guards with the angle grinders they used to cut into the glass display booths containing jewels.
Four thieves are being hunted by French authorities for their brazen heist at the Louvre on Sunday, AFP reported, citing Paris's chief prosecutor.
According to the prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, the four men were a "strike team" who robbed the Louvre's Apollo Gallery containing France's crown jewels.
Beccuau told BFMTV television that the thieves were wearing masks to hide their faces and used high-powered scooters to escape.
She added that the thieves threatened museum guards with the angle grinders they used to cut into the glass display booths containing the jewels they were after, according to AFP.
The thieves broke into Paris' Louvre museum earlier in the day, using a crane. They stole priceless jewellery from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping.
The thieves struck at about 9.30am (local time) when the museum had already opened its doors to the public and entered the Galerie d'Apollon building, the country's interior ministry has said in a statement, according to Reuters.
What all was stolen?
According to the French culture ministry, eight items of jewellery were stolen from the Louvre, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise.
"Two high-security display cases were targeted, and eight objects of invaluable cultural heritage were stolen," said the ministry statement.
One of the stolen jewels, thought to be Empress Eugénie’s broken crown, was eventually recovered outside the museum after the thieves dropped it while fleeing.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation into organised theft and criminal conspiracy, conducted by the Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police (BRB) with assistance from the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC).
The Louvre, which covers 73,000 square metres of exhibition space, has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous incident occurred in 1911, when Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from its frame. It was found two years later in Florence.
