Louvre Museum robbery CCTV footage surfaces, robbers seen cutting glass with chainsaw to steal jewels

Louvre Museum in Paris, the place considered a safe haven for artworks such as Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, was recently robbed of its valuables. Sunday’s robbery at the art gallery shocked the world when a video surfaced of one of the suspects showing him using a mini chainsaw to cut through a glass case, reports AFP. While the thieves took almost ’30 seconds’ to get into the world’s most visited museum, they stole the precious jewels and iconic valuables in a “four-minute operation”, Culture Minister Rachida Dati said. In the short video clip, the robber can be seen wearing a reflective jacket over a black hoodie. The video released by French outlet BFMTV shows him casually cutting through the protective casing. Watch video here: Items stolen from Paris’s Louvre Museum A total of nine precious items were stolen from France’s crown jewels. However, the robbers mistakenly dropped one object during their escape – Empress Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown. The crown once owned by Napoleon III’s wife, which contained more than 1,300 diamonds, was found broken outside the museum, according to French authorities. One of the highest-profile museum thefts in broad daylight lasted about 10 minutes and occurred about 30 minutes after opening, when visitors were already inside. According to officials, four intruders broke in through a window, cut panes with a disk cutter and headed straight for the glass display cases, making off with the loot in less than 10 minutes. Queen Marie-Amelie’s diamond and sapphire tiara, sapphire earrings, and a sapphire necklace. These valuables belonged to the last Queen of France and Queen Hortense. An emerald necklace and earrings belonging to Napoleon Boneparte’s second wife, Marie-Louise, were also stolen. A large body bow belonging to the Empress Eugenie was among the precious jewels stolen. It consists of 2,634 diamonds, which were purchased by the museum in 2008 for $10.5 million. The bodice button of Empress Eugenie. The ministry said in a statement: “The five museum agents, present in the room and in the adjacent spaces, immediately intervened,” to alert the police, who immediately acted to get the visitors out of the gallery.