Suspects have been arrested in reference to the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre museum, the Paris prosecutor mentioned on Sunday, every week after the heist that shocked the world.
The prosecutor mentioned that investigators made the arrests on Saturday night, including that one of many males taken into custody was making ready to depart the nation from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and brought into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau didn’t affirm the variety of arrests and didn’t say whether or not any jewels had been recovered.
Thieves took lower than eight minutes final Sunday morning to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros (US$102 million) from the world’s most-visited museum. French officers described how the intruders used a basket elevate to scale the Louvre’s façade, compelled open a window, smashed show circumstances and fled. The museum’s director known as the incident a “horrible failure.”
Beccuau mentioned investigators from a particular police unit in control of armed robberies, severe burglaries and artwork thefts made the arrests. In her assertion, she rued the untimely leak of knowledge, saying it might hinder the work of over 100 investigators “mobilized to get well the stolen jewels and apprehend all the perpetrators.” Beccuau mentioned additional particulars shall be unveiled after the suspects’ custody interval ends.
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French Inside Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who’ve labored tirelessly, simply as I requested them to, and who’ve all the time had my full confidence.”
The Louvre reopened earlier this week after one of many highest-profile museum thefts of the century shocked the world with its audacity and scale.
The thieves slipped out and in, making off with a few of France’s crown jewels — a cultural wound that some in comparison with the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.
The thieves escaped with a complete of eight objects, together with a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to Nineteenth-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
In addition they took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second spouse, in addition to a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her giant corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of uncommon craftsmanship — have been additionally a part of the loot.
One piece — Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with greater than 1,300 diamonds — was later discovered exterior the museum, broken however repairable.
Information of the arrests was met with aid by Louvre guests and passersby on Sunday.
“It’s necessary for our heritage. Every week later, it does really feel a bit late, we surprise how this might even occur — however it was necessary that the fellows have been caught,” mentioned Freddy Jacquemet.
“I feel the principle factor now’s whether or not they can get well the jewels,” added Diana Ramirez. “That’s what actually issues.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
