Louvre Reopens Now-Empty Apollo Gallery Nine Months After Jewel Heist
11July 23, 2026
Nine months after abrazen jewel heistleft theLouvrescrambling, the museum has finally reopened the Apollo Gallery, where four masked thieves stole eight items valued collectively at $102 million. However, perreports, the space that was once teeming with valuable jewelry is now completely empty.
Christophe Leribault, the freshly appointed director of the Louvre, explained toLe Parisienthat in order to ensure the safety of the museum’s remaining cache of French crown jewels, the gems will no longer be on public display. “The jewels will be returned to a vault, without windows,” Leribault said. Catherine Pegard, France’s Minister of Culture, praised the reopening of the Apollo Gallery and added that the robbery had been a “trauma for the whole world.”
The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery is a 17th-century marvel that was created under the rule of King Louis XIV. Designed by architect Louis Le Vau and painted by Charles Le Brun, the space served as a model for the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The painting that decorates the ceiling, Apollo Slaying the Serpent Python, was created by the artist Eugène Delacroix.
In order to burglarize the gallery last October, the thieves used a basket lift and an angle grinder to cut through one of the Apollo’s first-floor windows, after which they smashed glass cases and grabbed their loot. The entire operation took place within seven minutes. Two principal suspects recently claimed that the heist was arranged by an unnamed third party.
The jewel thieves’ spoils, all of which are still missing, include a sapphire necklace worn by Napoleon Bonaparte’s stepdaughter and an emerald necklace covered with more than 1,000 diamonds. The suspects also managed to drop and damage a tiara once owned by Empress Eugénie outside the museum; the crown is now being restored.
In the aftermath of the heist, Laurence des Cars stepped down from her role as director of the Louvre, and France’s Cour des Comptes conducted a report that found the museum to be demonstrably far behind in terms of the strength of its security measures.