Louvre jewel heist: French police arrest 5 more in ramped-up probe – National
Five more people have been arrested in connection with the crown jewels heist at the Louvre, French prosecutors confirmed on Thursday.
Included in the group is one of the suspected robbers, who authorities say was identified with DNA evidence collected from the scene.
A four-person team ransacked the Louvre‘s Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19 after entering through a broken window and running away with $102 million worth of jewellery.
Laure Beccuau, the lead prosecutor in the case, told RTL radio that finding the DNA-linked suspect was “one of the objectives of the investigators — we had him in our sights,” she said, adding that “others taken into custody may be able to inform us about how the events unfolded.”
She did not disclose their identities or provide any additional details.
The thieves made off with a diamond-and-emerald necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave to Empress Marie Louise as a wedding gift, as well as crown jewels tied to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.
Separate operations in Paris and the adjacent Seine-Saint-Denis have resulted in a total of seven arrests in connection with the heist.
However, the whereabouts of the jewels remain unknown, except for one relic that has surfaced — Eugénie’s crown, damaged but salvageable, which suspects dropped during their escape.
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Police made the first two arrests in the case on Saturday, according to French media, including a man who was preparing to leave France from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Police officers work inside the Louvre museum, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.
AP Photo / Thibault Camus
It took thieves — who used a basket lift to scale the building’s exterior walls — less than eight minutes to break into the world’s most visited museum, a feat the museum’s director called a “terrible failure.”
Thieves stole the basket lift used to reach the building’s upper floors nine days before the breach occurred.
Security footage shows the crew ascending to the Apollo Gallery window at 9:30 a.m. on the day of the raid. By 9:38, the suspects had departed, carrying loot, as they sped away on scooters.
Only the “near-simultaneous” arrival of police and museum security stopped the thieves from burning the lift, which in turn preserved crucial evidence, the prosecutor said before reiterating her appeal to any remaining suspects, saying, “These jewels are now, of course, unsellable.… There’s still time to give them back.”
Experts warn that the gold could be melted down and that precious stones could be recut to erase their past, which some Louvre visitors say would leave an indelible stain on French history.
“It’s important for our heritage…we wonder how this could even happen — but it was important that the guys were caught,” Freddy Jacquemet told The Associated Press.
“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” Diana Ramirez added. “That’s what really matters.”
According to investigators, there is no evidence of insider help at this time; however, they are not ruling out a wider network beyond the four suspects caught on security cameras.
After a short period of closure, the Louvre reopened on Oct. 22.
— with files from The Associated Press
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