{"id":106230,"date":"2025-10-30T15:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/106230\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:47:07","slug":"louvre-jewels-mystery-deepens-experts-warn-what-could-happen-to-the-100-million-in-missing-artifacts-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/106230\/","title":{"rendered":"Louvre jewels mystery deepens: Experts warn what could happen to the $100 million in missing artifacts now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven people have been arrested in the investigation of\u00a0a stunning heist<\/a>\u00a0at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but the lavish, stolen jewels that once adorned France\u2019s royals are still missing.<\/p>\n

In the days after the theft, a handful of experts warned that the artifacts\u00a0valued at more than $100 million<\/a>\u00a0(88 million euros) could be melted or broken into parts. If done successfully, some say those smaller pieces could later go up for sale as part of a new necklace, earrings or other jewelry, without turning too many heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t even have to put them on a black market, you just put them in a jewelry store,\u201d said Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. \u201cIt could be sold down the street from the Louvre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson and others say that this has become increasingly common with stolen jeweled and metal goods, noting that it\u2019s a way thieves can try to cover their tracks and make money. It\u2019s not like someone could publicly wear one of France\u2019s\u00a0stolen Crown Jewels<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and finding a market to sell the full artifacts would be incredibly difficult after \u201ceveryone and their sister\u201d has seen photos of them over the last week, said Christopher Marinello, a lawyer and founder of Art Recovery International.<\/p>\n

French prosecutor Laure Beccuau made a plea Wednesday to whoever has the jewels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese jewels are now, of course, unsellable \u2026 Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,\u201d she warned. \u201cThere\u2019s still time to give them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jewels may be hard to monetize<\/p>\n

\u201cBy breaking them apart, they will hide their theft,\u201d Marinello said, adding that these items could become even more \u201ctraceless\u201d if they\u2019re taken out of France and through jewel cutters and robust supply chains in other countries.<\/p>\n

Still, such pieces are often sold for a fraction of the value of what was stolen \u2014 due to their smaller size, but also because melting or breaking down high-profile items removes the historical worth.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t a simple process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real art in an art heist isn\u2019t the stealing, it\u2019s the selling,\u201d explained Robert Wittman, former senior investigator of the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s art crime team. Wittman, who has since formed his own private practice, said that the individuals behind such heists are typically \u201cbetter criminals or thieves than they are businessmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike others, Wittman is skeptical about the thieves successfully monetizing the artifacts they stole from the Louvre \u2014\u00a0which include<\/a>\u00a0an emerald necklace and earrings, two crowns, two brooches, a sapphire necklace and a single earring worn by 19th-century royals. He notes the gems may still be identifiable by their clarity, for example, and gold that was refined when the pieces were made hundreds of years ago is not as pure as what\u2019s typically\u00a0in demand today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of what they are, there\u2019s really no point destroying them,\u201d Wittman said, while pointing to the risks of selling such high-profile stolen goods.<\/p>\n

Scott Guginsky, executive vice president of the Jewelers\u2019 Security Alliance, a nonprofit trade association focused on preventing jewelry crime, also notes the age and quality of the artifacts\u2019 diamonds. He suspects they\u2019re probably not graded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that you can move on the open market. It\u2019s nothing that can go through an auction house,\u201d said Guginsky, who used to run the New York Police Department\u2019s organized theft squad.<\/p>\n

Given the amount of preparation that the thieves likely put into this, Guginsky believes they have a plan for selling the jewels, even if they might first decide to \u201csit on\u201d the jewelry and wait out suspicion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see them stealing it without having an idea what they want to do,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s always a person willing to buy stolen jewelry. No matter what it is, somebody will buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Yood, CEO and general counsel of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, notes most jewelry businesses implement anti-money laundering programs and look out for red flags like unusual orders, repeated purchases and requests for secrecy.<\/p>\n

Still, she and others say the age of some jewels \u2014 if broken down effectively \u2014 could actually make it harder to track. Newer gemstones, for example, sometimes carry a laser inscription inside that can be evaluated in a lab. But \u201cbecause these are historical pieces, it\u2019s rather unlikely that it has those identifying features,\u201d noted Yood.<\/p>\n

Experts like Thompson say bigger gems can be recut to a point that they\u2019re unrecognizable. A challenge is finding people who have the skill to do that and don\u2019t ask too many questions \u2014 but it\u2019s possible, she said.<\/p>\n

Whether the people behind the heist had those contacts or certain buyers lined up is unknown. But it\u2019s important to also note that \u201cthe guys who actually enter the museums are usually all hired hands, and they\u2019re almost always caught in these cases,\u201d Thompson added.<\/p>\n

Chances of recovery look dim<\/p>\n

She and others say that museums have increasingly faced a rash of similar thefts over recent years. Thompson notes that stealing from storage can go undetected for longer:\u00a0the British Museum<\/a>\u00a0in London, which\u00a0has accused a former curator<\/a>\u00a0of stealing artifacts and selling them online, is still trying to recover some of the 2,000 items stolen.<\/p>\n

Some past thieves have made ransom demands for stolen artwork overall, or wait for a potential \u201cno questions asked\u201d reward from an insurance company \u2014 which can amount to about a 10% cut for some insured pieces in Europe, Thompson says. The jewels stolen from the Louvre, however, were not privately insured.<\/p>\n

Sometimes government offers of a reward for information about a high-profile heist can also\u00a0quicken the investigation<\/a>, although the French government has yet to publicize such an incentive. If that changes, or promising leads are uncovered from the evidence left behind at the Louvre, experts like Wittman note it could increase the chances of recovering the artifacts.<\/p>\n

Still, as more time passes, others feel that the fate of finding the historic jewels looks dim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re going to catch the criminals,\u201d Marinello said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll find them with the jewels intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

______<\/p>\n

Rico reported from Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people have been arrested in the investigation of\u00a0a stunning heist\u00a0at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-106230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}