One year after thieves stole $100 million worth of crown jewels from Paris’s Louvre Museum, the treasures remain missing, with police yet to locate the loot despite four suspects being jailed awaiting trial.
The heist occurred on Oct. 19, 2025, when thieves disguised as workers used industrial disc-cutters to break into the museum and made off with eight historic items, including a brooch and crown belonging to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. French President Emmanuel Macron called the robbery an attack on France’s history.
The last confirmed sighting of the jewels was on CCTV footage in an underground lock-up in Aubervilliers, a suburb north of Paris where all four suspects live. Extensive searches of their homes, as well as those of their families, along with cellars, garages, and attics, have yielded no results, according to a 100-strong investigation team.
Experts suggest the jewels may have been hidden in the Paris region if the thieves acted alone. Christopher Marinello of Art Recovery International told AFP there was a short window where the items could have been concealed in a wall or buried. Dutch art detective Arthur Brand noted that if one suspect confesses, the jewels might still be recovered, as French police are skilled at interrogation.
A more concerning possibility is that the gang handed the jewels to a ringleader or middleman linked to organized crime. Two suspects have claimed a ringleader was involved, though investigators treat this with skepticism, according to a source close to the case. If the jewels entered the underground precious stones market, they may have been transported to diamond hubs like Antwerp, Tel Aviv, or India, where they could be recut and resold, said Brand and Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds. Once recut, even top laboratories would struggle to identify them as stolen, Kormind added.
Interpol’s stolen art unit head, Corrado Catesi, warned that organized crime groups have the networks to both commit such thefts and dispose of the items. If the jewels were dismantled, their re-entry into the legitimate market would be difficult to trace.
