{"id":240660,"date":"2025-11-03T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240660\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T04:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:00:09","slug":"louvre-jewel-heist-by-petty-criminals-not-organised-professionals-says-paris-prosecutor-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240660\/","title":{"rendered":"Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor | Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris<\/a> prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.<\/p>\n

The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck<\/a> outside the world\u2019s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum\u2019s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated<\/a> \u20ac88m (\u00a376m).<\/p>\n

The audacious heist, carried out on a Sunday in broad daylight, has prompted a reckoning<\/a> in France. Four people have since been charged<\/a>, but the stolen gems, which include an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave to his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diadem set with 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds that once belonged to Eug\u00e9nie, the wife of Napoleon III, are yet to be recovered.<\/p>\n

At least one other perpetrator remained at large, the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, told the Franceinfo radio network on Sunday.<\/p>\n

French media have speculated that the thieves were amateurs after it emerged that they had dropped the most precious of the jewels \u2013 Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s crown, made of gold, emerald and diamonds \u2013 during their escape, and had left behind tools and other items at the scene that potentially bore traces of their DNA.<\/p>\n

Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said on Sunday she did not rule out that there could be other accomplices involved as well as the people already charged. Photograph: Sadak Souici\/EPA<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not quite everyday delinquency \u2026 but it is a type of delinquency that we do not generally associate with the upper echelons of organised crime,\u201d Beccuau said. She described those charged as local people, saying that they all hailed from Seine-Saint-Denis, a d\u00e9partement north of Paris that is one of the poorest<\/a> in France.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, prosecutors said a 38-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man had been charged and remanded in custody amid accusations their DNA was found in the lift used during the theft.<\/p>\n

The man has been charged with organised theft and criminal conspiracy, while his partner has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Beccuau described them as a couple who have children together. They have \u201cdenied any involvement\u201d, she added. The woman was in tears<\/a> as she appeared at a Paris court on Saturday, saying she feared for her children and for herself.<\/p>\n

Days earlier, police arrested two others<\/a> in connection with the raid: a 34-year-old Algerian who has lived in France since 2010, and a 39-year-old who was already under judicial supervision for aggravated theft. The men, who were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy, have \u201cpartially admitted\u201d their involvement, Beccuau said<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Headlines Europe<\/p>\n

A digest of the morning’s main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day<\/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

All three of the men charged were known to police for previous convictions, including theft. Two of the suspects had previously been convicted in a theft case together 10 years ago, said Beccuau, who on Sunday did not rule out that there could be other accomplices.<\/p>\n

Three people arrested along with the couple<\/a> on 29 October were freed without charge, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

When asked on Sunday about whether investigators were getting closer to finding the jewels, Beccuau demurred, citing the secrecy of the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are examining all the possibilities on the parallel market for selling this jewellery, which I hope will not happen any time soon,\u201d she said. \u201cIt could be used for money laundering, it could be used for trade; all leads are being explored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-240660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}