What Was Stolen from the Louvre?
Soon after the Louvre in Paris unlocked its doors to visitors on Sunday, October 19, 2025, a team of thieves brazenly made off with nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry from the collection. The heist, which involved a truck-mounted electric ladder, power tools, and motorbikes, took less than 10 minutes, and left the museum without several objets d’art once worn by France’s imperial and royal families. Within weeks French authorities apprehended and charged four suspects but had not recovered the historic jewels. Many feared that they would be broken up and sold, the precious metals melted down and the gems recut. Read on to learn what items were taken and, beyond their material value, what their significance was.
An emerald necklace and earring set
Upon his marriage to his second wife,Marie-Louise, in 1810,Napoleon gifted her an emerald and diamond jewelry set. It included a tiara, a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a comb. In 2004 the Louvre acquired the necklace and earrings, the only two adornments from the set that survived in their original state. The robbers took both of them.
Parts of a sapphire jewelry set
The burglars also pilfered three articles from a sapphire and diamond set worn by the likes of Marie-Amélie de Bourbon and Hortense. Marie-Amélie was the queen of Louis-Philippe, who was the last king of France (ruled between 1830 and 1848), and Hortense was the queen of Holland, the stepdaughter of Napoleon I (she was the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine, and her first husband), and the mother of Napoleon III, who ruled as the president of the Second Republic of France (1850–52) and then as the emperor of the French (1852–70). In 1985 the Louvre obtained five pieces from the original set, and the robbers took three of those. This included the tiara, necklace, and earrings. The tiara alone contained 24 sapphires and 1,083 diamonds.
Pearl diadem of Eugénie
The majority of the jewels seized by the burglars had once belonged to Empress Eugénie, who had been the wife of Napoleon III. Her exquisite pearl and diamond diadem, which includes 212 pearls and 1,998 diamonds, was one of them. It had been acquired by the Louvre in 1992.
Diamond bodice bow
Another of Eugénie’s accessories that was snatched by the thieves was a large bow-shaped adornment created as part of a belt. The work was intended to be shown at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855 and then worn by the empress afterward. Eugénie later had the grandiose ornament reworked to become a bodice brooch, and the Louvre procured the item in 2008.
The reliquary brooch
Eugénie, who was a pious Roman Catholic, also wore the chandelier-like diamond brooch that the robbers made off with. The trinket has been a part of the Louvre’s collection since 1887, and although the word reliquaire is inscribed on the back, the museum’s professionals have not been able to identify with certainty a compartment for housing a relic.
(Read Britannica’s list on 11 other high-class thefts.)
Crown of Eugénie
The last of the jewels purloined from the Louvre was Eugénie’s breathtaking gold, diamond, and emerald crown created on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1855. The imperial headpiece was acquired by the Louvre in 1988 and is distinguished by the stylized gold eagles and diamond-encrusted palmettes that make up the frame. Officials indicated that the crown was found damaged outside the museum, apparently having been dropped by the robbers in their haste to flee the scene.