Historian Eric Anceau called the robbery of the Louvre jewels the most serious and spectacular, even surpassing the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, the historian also said that the objects that were stolen from the world’s most famous museum have a much greater symbolic value.
Eric Anceau said of the “incalculable loss” from the Louvre robbery: “…unlike the Notre-Dame fire in 2019, which led to an incredible outpouring of support and reconstruction efforts, I fear that yesterday’s theft may be irreparable.”
“The Louvre has experienced several thefts in the past, but this one is both the most spectacular and the most serious. It even surpasses the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, because, apart from the discovery of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting two years later, the Mona Lisa did not have the same fame at the time as the French day told about today.”
When asked about the jewels of greatest value, Eric Anceau said the stolen pieces were linked to the second wife of Napoleon I, the wife of Napoleon III, Queen Marie-Amélie and others, but the tiara – made of pearls and diamonds – was the most valuable because “it was worn by the last French monarch on all important occasions”.
He believed that the Louvre robbery was “rather the work of conventional thieves who take the stones apart, cut them up and sell them. In that case the loss would be truly irreparable.”
The Louvre Heist: What We Know So Far
The world-famous Louvre museum in Paris was closed on Sunday after several pieces of priceless jewelery were stolen in a brazen robbery.
The gang broke into the Galerie d’Apollon – a room on the first floor of the Petite Galerie that has housed the French Crown Jewels since 1887 – and fled with the jewels.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau reported that the jewels that were stolen from the Louvre were valued at more than 100 million dollars.
Several jewels belonged to Napoleon and Empress Eugenie.
The Louvre opened today, October 22, for the first time since the robbery.
What was stolen from the Louvre?
- Tiara from the Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense Jewelery Set
- Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense sapphire jewelry set necklace
- Earrings, part of a pair from Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense’s sapphire jewelery set
- Emerald necklace from the Marie-Louise set
- A pair of emerald earrings from the Marie-Louise set
- A brooch known as a reliquary brooch
- Large brooch of Empress Eugenie
Empress Eugenie’s crown – made of 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds – was found outside the museum. It is believed to have been dropped by the thieves as they fled. Historian Eric Anceau said that Napoleon III “commissioned the greatest goldsmiths and jewelers in the country to make it”.
