It is already, in a small way, Paris\u2019s newest tourist attraction. \u201cAnd on our right,\u201d boomed the guide on the bateau mouche tour boat heading up the Seine, \u201cthe Louvre \u2013 and the window thieves smashed to steal France\u2019s crown jewels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s most visited museum reopened on Wednesday for the first time since a gang of four men broke into its Apollo gallery on Sunday, making off with \u20ac88m (\u00a376m)<\/a> of Napoleonic jewellery in France\u2019s most dramatic heist in decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n Long queues snaked around the Cour Napol\u00e9on, the museum\u2019s vast main courtyard, and the glass pyramid that serves as its entrance, as visitors waited patiently for their turn to tour 33,000 sculptures, objets d\u2019art, paintings and drawings.<\/p>\n Outside, however, across the busy Quai Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand from the museum\u2019s grand facade, a smaller but more animated crowd had gathered instead on the pavement beside the river, staring up at a tall window partly hidden behind black drapes.<\/p>\n People came to the Quai Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand to see where the criminals entered and escaped through a window. Photograph: Xavier Francolon\/Sipa\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just extraordinary,\u201d said Alida, visting Paris<\/a> with her husband, Machiel, from Blaricum in the Netherlands. \u201cIt just looks like it was so \u2026 simple. I mean, if it had happened in a film, people would be saying, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s a really boring script\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the thieves, wearing hi-vis vests as if they were workmen, used an extendable ladder and furniture lift parked on the street to climb up and break in through the window, then used disc-cutters to smash two display cases containing the jewellery.<\/p>\n They made off on the back of two waiting motorbikes with eight pieces<\/a>, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diamond-studded diadem that once belonged to the empress Eug\u00e9nie, wife of Napoleon III.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole thing is surreal,\u201d said Fanny from Limoges, on half-term holiday in the French capital with her husband, Vincent, and two children. \u201cYou think, the Louvre, home of the Mona Lisa, that\u2019s got to be ultra-protected. But apparently not.\u201d<\/p>\n Vincent pointed to the professionalism of the operation. \u201cLook along that facade: literally hundreds of windows,\u201d he said. \u201cThey knew exactly which one. And they were in and out in about four minutes. They knew what they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n But while it was spectacular, the theft was not particularly surprising, he said. \u201cIt must be almost impossible to completely protect a massive public building like this. Tens of thousands of square metres, millions of visitors \u2026 Not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Plus, Vincent added, the Louvre was \u201ca historic monument. You can use electronic alarms and video cameras and infrared beams and all you like on the inside, and they do, but you can\u2019t just go and slap reinforced steel shutters on all the exterior windows.\u201d<\/p>\n The window where thieves entered was hidden by a black screen on Wednesday. Photograph: Thibault Camus\/AP<\/p>\n Pamela, Tom and Tim, from Philadelphia in the US, were equally impressed by the meticulous planning. \u201cThis was a hugely professional crime,\u201d said Tom. \u201cLike in a movie \u2013 like the Thomas Crown Affair,\u201d said Pamela. \u201cAlmost too perfect,\u201d said Tim.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Elena, from Rome, said she understood \u201chow very difficult it must be to prevent\u201d this kind of crime, especially one that was \u201cobviously so carefully prepared, by such determined thieves, and in a state-owned building as enormous as the Louvre\u201d.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, she said, the theft was \u201cshocking, and saddening. I\u2019m from Rome, I care about art and antiquities. These historic jewels will most probably be broken up and sold now, won\u2019t they? No one would buy them whole. That\u2019s a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n The Apollo gallery doors remained closed on Wednesday, with three grey panels blocking the view and Louvre staff asking visitors to keep moving, as investigators continued to scour the room for evidence that could lead them to the robbers.<\/p>\n France\u2019s interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, told French media the inquiry was \u201cprogressing\u201d, with more than 100 investigators on the case. \u201cI have every confidence that we will find the perpetrators,\u201d he said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n