Paris Police Arrest Two Suspects in €88 Million Louvre Crown Jewels Heist

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UPDATED :
Kolkata, India | Oct 28, 2025, 17:58 IST
4 Min read

The Seven-Minute Heist That Shocked the World

On the morning of October 19, the thieves executed their plan in broad daylight, targeting the Louvre's ornate Apollo Gallery. The team drove up to the museum in a mobile freight elevator equipped with a metal ladder, which they extended to reach a second-floor window. The stolen jewelry includes a diamond and sapphire set with a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense. The Paris prosecutor's office has estimated the stolen jewels to be worth 88 million euros ($102 million), though their cultural and historical value to France is considered incalculable.

Suspect Caught Minutes Before Algeria-Bound Flight

French National Police stated that one of the suspects was taken into custody at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on Saturday at around 10 p.m. while trying to catch a trip to Algeria. The dramatic apprehension happened forty minutes prior to the planned departure, during passport control. As he was getting ready to leave for Mali, West Africa, the second suspect was also arrested in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris in the northeast. The two suspects are thirty-year-old French citizens who live in Seine-Saint-Denis and were previously known to the police from prior burglary cases. While one suspect is a dual French-Malian national, the other is a dual French-Algerian. Both individuals are suspected of being involved in the October 19 robbery, according to detectives from the Paris Brigade for the Repression of Banditry (BRB), the specialized police unit in charge of the case.

DNA Evidence Leads to Breakthrough

Forensic evidence retrieved from the crime scene enabled the arrests. From goods left by the escaping burglars, such as helmets, gloves, a reflective vest, angle grinders, a blowtorch, a walkie-talkie, and a gas canister, investigators were able to obtain over 150 DNA samples, fingerprints, and other clues. In the days preceding the arrests, police were able to place one of the suspects under physical and telephone monitoring after DNA evidence was discovered inside a helmet that was left at the site and matched him. "If the individual's fi ngerprints and DNA are already in the database, it can go very quickly. In just a few hours, they can pull up a profi le and identify the person," explained forensic police expert Magali Rapuzzi.

Security Failures Expose Museum Vulnerabilities

The heist has exposed serious security deficiencies at the world's most visited museum. Laurence des Cars, the director of the Louvre, acknowledged before the French Senate that when the robbers broke in, there were no security cameras on the gallery's second-floor balcony. Following the incident, she referred to it as a "terrible failure" and offered her resignation in the aftermath. An audit of the Louvre leaked after the heist described the security as "outdated," and museum staff had previously accused leadership of postponing

security upgrades amid staff shortages. Many have compared the cultural wound to the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire, highlighting how deeply the breach has damaged French pride.

Investigation Continues as Hunt for Jewels Intensifies

 A large-scale police operation that involves numerous detectives from a specialized team that deals with serious burglaries, art thefts, and armed robberies is still in progress. Authorities are rushing because experts fear the diamonds may be melted down or disassembled by the thieves in order to sell them quickly on the black market. As the investigation continues, the world is keeping an eye on the inquiry to see whether French authorities can recover the priceless jewels and bring all those responsible to justice. The case serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities facing even the most prestigious cultural institutions in an era where brazen, low-tech crimes can still succeed against modern security systems.

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