The Louvre’s director is set to appear before French senators after a heist at the museum saw the loss of priceless crown jewels.
Laurence des Cars will answer questions about how a gang of four thieves – who remain at large – managed to carry out Sunday’s brazen daylight robbery.
Using a ladder mounted on a truck, masked thieves cut through a first-floor window and stole jewellery worth €88m (£76m; $102m) before escaping on scooters – all in under eight minutes.
Eight items of jewellery were stolen in total, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gifted his wife, Empress Marie Louise (pictured below).
Also taken was a diadem (jewelled headband) that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie – Napoleon III’s wife – which has nearly 2,000 diamonds (pictured above).
The masked thieves also took a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France, which contains eight sapphires and 631 diamonds.
Although described as priceless, the jewellery has been valued at €88m (£76m; $102m) by the museum’s curator, a French prosecutor told RTL radio.
The theft has caused political outcry in France, with President Macron calling the raid “an attack on our history”
Meanwhile, the Louvre partially reopened to visitors today, three days after the shocking theft took place.
(BBC News)
