PARIS (AP) — It took less than eight minutes for thieves to steal 88 million euros ($102 million) worth of crown jewels in a weekend heist at the world's most visited museum, the Louvre, shocking the world.
French officials have described how the thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled on Sunday morning.
The thieves spent less than four minutes inside the museum.
Here’s what's known about
the timeline:
Thieves use a false pretext to steal a basket lift. Paris prosecutor Laurence Beccuau said they set an appointment with a company that owned the truck before leaving with it, using threats but no violence. The company filed a complaint for the theft in the town of Louvres, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Paris. The name has made many wonder whether it was a coincidence.
9 a.m.: The Louvre museum opens to visitors.
9:30 a.m.: Thieves dressed like renovation workers park the truck equipped with a freight lift — a common sight in Paris — at the foot of the Louvre, on Quai François Mitterrand alongside the Seine River. Two people climb a ladder to reach a balcony and open a window with a disc cutter.
9:34 a.m.: The two thieves enter the south end of the Apollo gallery and use disc cutters to smash two display cases and take the jewels. An alarm is triggered at the security control room. Security officers make visitors evacuate, in line with requirements that focus on crowd safety.
9:38 a.m.: The thieves leave via the same window and flee east with two other people waiting for them on two scooters. They leave behind a yellow jacket similar to those often worn by construction workers and other equipment, including a disc cutter. Culture Minister Rachida Dati said security officers on site prevented one thief from setting the truck with the freight lift on fire.
10:34 a.m.: Dati announces on social media that “a robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum."
Later that day: The emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was found outside the museum. The thieves left with eight other objects of invaluable historic value.
The museum reopens. Beccuau the prosecutor says about 100 investigators are working on the case in addition to forensics experts who are analyzing surveillance footage and “150 samples” that were collected on the basket lift, inside the museum and on items found.
