Two Suspects Arrested in Connection with Louvre Robbery
64Oct. 28, 2025
Investigators have arrested two men believed to have been involved in the audacious October 19 theft of France’s crown jewels from theLouvrein Paris. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in an October 26 statement that investigators made the arrests the previous evening. The suspects, both in their thirties, are residents of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, home to some of Paris’s poorest and most populated suburbs. French dailyLe Parisien, which broke the news of the arrests, reported that one man was detained around 10 p.m. at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he was preparing to board a flight to Algeria.
The broad-daylight theft resulted in the loss of eight separate pieces of jewelry, collectively valued at $102 million, and of immeasurable historic importance to France. The items are uninsured, meaning that the country would not be reimbursed for their loss if police fail to turn up the missing pieces. Officials have been focusing on fingerprints left at the scene, as well as on a thirty-six-second video clip that shows the thieves making their getaway on a basket lift after using an angle grinder to break into the museum’s iconic Apollo Gallery, where they smashed two glass cases and made off with the jewels in a caper lasting just seven minutes.
The heist has been an immense source of embarrassment for the administration of French president Emmanuel Macron, who earlier this year signaled a major restoration of the Louvre following the leak of a memo from the museum’s director, Laurence des Cars, in which she outlined the many structural and security problems plaguing the institution. After the jewels were taken, it was discovered that though alarms had functioned properly and staff had followed protocol, a security camera had been facing away from the gems. Des Cars submitted her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, but Dati rejected it. On October 24, under police watch, the museum transferred many of its most prized jewels to the Bank of France for safekeeping.