The article does a very bad job of describing what was stolen. The one item it actually names is the crown of Empress Eugénie.
Not quite priceless. Someone has a price.
Someone extremely wealthy with an expensive private art collection.
Very private. I can only see two buyers of this:
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A wealthy person who keeps this in a secret private collection.
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A country with significant national antiquities they want returned and are holding the French crown Jewels as a hostage to trade.
My money is on the descendants from Susa in present day Iran wanting back the code of Hammurabi that they stole from the Babylonians, or descendents from Babylon themselves.
It makes sense. You can’t directly steal the code as it’s a giant stone pillar. But you can steal the French Crown Jewels and negotiate to trade each others stolen goods.
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One person on X who said they were there reported a confused-sounding scene of police “running” near the museum’s famous pyramid “and trying to enter… from glass side doors but they were locked and they could not enter”.
“Everyone inside was running and banging on glass doors to get out, but could not open. Police and military police arrived,” they added.
That’s a way more newsworthy part than some random rich-people jewelery IMHO. Had they never heared of The Station nightclub? I hope the responsible parties of the Louvre get some jail time.
Yeah this is scary, especially given the number of people who visit.
However, this may be a case where things locked down (in a futile attempt to contain the thieves), as opposed to a fire. This still isn’t great, especially if it was someone who wanted to hurt people, but it’s probably why it happened.
Onze de Ocean
Does France’s National Police not drive around at night? I mean all it would take is one cruiser to see the lift and stop to check.
They dug a tunnel under it and filled it back on the way out. Not not too tightly though, cause they’ll probably be back.
