(NewsNation) — In just minutes, a group of thieves entered the Louvre dressed as construction workers, smashed display cases and made away with Napoleon-era jewels, according to officials.
The heist happened 30 minutes after the museum — which houses more than 350,000 objects in Paris, France — opened on Sunday.
The perpetrators rode a basket lift up its Seine-facing façade, cut windowpanes with a disc cutter, entered the Apollon Gallery and shattered two of the royal collection’s display cases. They then fled on motorbikes, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.
Photos: Which jewels were stolen from the Louvre?
The thieves took at least eight pieces of France’s crown jewels, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
Other stolen valuables were an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem and bow-breech belonging to Empress Eugénie.
Her crown was recovered, broken, outside of the museum on Sunday, officials told local reporters.
“An investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled,” a museum spokesperson told CBS News. “Beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value.”
Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, told The Associated Press that it is “unlikely these jewels will ever be seen again.”
“Professional crews often break down and re-cut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, effectively erasing their provenance,” Kormind said.
The Apollon Gallery, deemed a “gallery fit for a Sun King” by the Louvre, also contains Louis XIV’s hardstone vessel collection, table decorations and portrait tapestries of 28 monarchs and artists.
