{"id":258817,"date":"2026-01-30T05:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258817\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T05:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:20:16","slug":"whats-happening-with-the-louvre-heist-investigation-suspects-potential-buyers-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258817\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Happening With the Louvre Heist Investigation? Suspects, Potential Buyers, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

French media are calling it \u201cthe heist of the century\u201d: the theft of royal jewels<\/a> from the Louvre museum on October 19 last year. Months later, the embarrassed authorities have caught four suspects<\/a> and extracted some confessions. But mysteries remain: where are the jewels? And who are the criminal masterminds thought to have ordered the job?<\/p>\n

The theft happened in broad daylight in the middle of Paris, on a quiet Sunday morning soon after the world\u2019s most visited museum opened. A flat-bed truck parked outside and unrolled a ladder. Two men climbed it to the second floor, then broke into the Apollon balcony, through the sort of rickety door that, an official inquiry found, you might find in a country cottage. In under four minutes, they cut open glass cases protecting the 19th-century jewels. Their haul included two French royal tiaras<\/a>, and an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings that had belonged to Empress Marie Louise. The thieves descended again, made a failed attempt to burn the truck, then fled on scooters, thirty seconds ahead of the museum\u2019s security, which regrettably, had taken a wrong turn.<\/p>\n

\"ASept \u00e0 Huit (January 2026)<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, French television program Sept \u00e0 Huit showed a photograph of Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s crown, which was damaged during the heist.<\/p>\n

In their haste, the men dropped Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s crown<\/a> of gold, diamonds and emeralds. They also left behind items with traces of their DNA, including a motorcycle helmet and vest.<\/p>\n

Within a week, police were onto them. Abdoulaye N. (French justice withholds the full surnames of suspects) was held after leaving DNA on the inside of a glass case. Ayed G. was nabbed at Charles de Gaulle airport, about to fly one-way to his native Algeria. Slimane K. was caught queuing to watch a soccer game,<\/a> and the last to be picked up was Rachid H., who had blabbed to family about the crime.<\/p>\n

The men knew each other from Aubervilliers, a poor, mostly immigrant northern suburb of Paris. After the heist they had rendezvoused there at a parking garage, where two of them paused to admire their loot, unaware that they were standing underneath a security camera. Three of the men were old friends: Slimane, an amateur soccer referee, Abdoulaye, a minor YouTube star known for motocross acrobatics, and Rachid, a convicted pimp who was licensed to drive flat-bed trucks. Ayed, who had immigrated from Algeria in 2010, was Slimane\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n

\"TouristsAnadolu\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Louvre closed after the robbery but quickly reopened and saw a surge in attendance.<\/p>\n

All four were known to police. But this heist seemed out of their league. As state prosecutor Laure Beccuau remarked, they were known for \u201ca polymorphous delinquency that one doesn\u2019t associate with the heights of organized crime.\u201d Though the execution had been amateur, the kit was sophisticated, and the preparations meticulous. How were such small fry going to sell jewels with an estimated value over $100 million<\/a>? They must have been working for someone, but who? Art collectors, or a crime syndicate?<\/p>\n

Abdoulaye told investigators he had been hired by two men \u201cwith Slavic accents\u201d who offered him \u20ac15,000 for a routine burglary. He said he had expected to spend his Sunday morning robbing an empty office building, not the Louvre. Ayed claimed to have been recruited the day before the crime by a mystery man known only as \u201cLASER\u201d. He claimed that the jewels were snatched from him as he stepped off the ladder. The suspects wouldn\u2019t identify their paymasters, or reveal the jewels\u2019 whereabouts, perhaps for fear of reprisals. Prosecutors hope they will squeal in return for reduced jail sentences. But the jewels may have already been cut up and sold separately. For anyone curious to see them: the singer and actress Teyana Taylor wore reimagined versions at a Schiaparelli show in Paris in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SchiaparelliJacopo Raule\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Teyana Taylor wore reimagined versions of the stolen jewels at a Schiaparelli show in Paris in January.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, inside the French state, recriminations have been flying. Louvre staff chose a traditional French remedy, staging a series of strikes<\/a>, partly in protest at the museum\u2019s weak security. France\u2019s chief inspector for cultural affairs, No\u00ebl Corbin\u2014himself a former financial and judicial director of the Louvre\u2014diagnosed the museum\u2019s \u201cgeneral failure as well as its oversight.\u201d Security had not been a priority. The password for the video surveillance system was, brilliantly, \u201cLOUVRE\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Le Monde newspaper reported that six weeks before the heist, Paris\u2019s Prefecture of Police had sent the museum directorate a confidential report that described \u201call resources dedicated to security as outdated and unsuitable.\u201d The report noted, among much else, \u201cthe obsolete furniture and computer equipment provided to officers in the central control room and the area control rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LaurenceEdward Berthelot\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Louvre director Laurence des Cars appeared in front of the French Senate in October after the robbery.<\/p>\n

The Louvre\u2019s director Laurence des Cars admitted, \u201cOn the side of the Apollon, the only camera faces westwards and doesn\u2019t cover the balcony concerned by the break-in.\u201d In other words, some people have more cameras tracking their dogs than the museum had on its uninsured jewels.<\/p>\n

And France\u2019s treasures continue to disappear. Dozens of pieces of silver and tableware went missing from Emmanuel Macron\u2019s presidential Elys\u00e9e palace, then surfaced in December in the locker, car, and home of a palatial silver steward. At least he hadn\u2019t been commissioned by some James Bond villain busy redecorating his lair. The unique items were spotted in online auctions.<\/p>\n

\"MarineTom Williams\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The October 2025 robbery captured the world\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Simon Kuper is a columnist at the Financial Times. His new book, World Cup Fever<\/a>, will be published by Simon & Schuster in March 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French media are calling it \u201cthe heist of the century\u201d: the theft of royal jewels from the Louvre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,148864,2519,148862,501,2117,156,2462,111,139,69,148861,148863],"class_list":{"0":"post-258817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-collection-jewelry","13":"tag-content-type-feature","14":"tag-contentid-793305e6-79f6-4b04-873c-c08c6a7a50fa","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-locale-us","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-shorttitle-louvre-heist-updates","23":"tag-subsection-arts-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}