Another five people have been arrested in connection with the daring daytime heist at the Louvre in Paris, but the stolen crown jewels — worth an estimated $102 million — continue to elude authorities.
Each of the suspects were captured on Wednesday during a late-night operation in the Seine-Saint-Denis region in the suburbs of Paris, bringing the total number of people in custody to seven, State Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL.
She added that one of the new detainees is suspected of belonging to the brazen four-person crew — dubbed “the commando” by French media — that burst into the Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19.
Two other suspected members of the quartet, both men in their 30s and from Seine-Saint-Denis, were arrested last weekend, both of them attempting to leave the country at the time, police said. They were placed under formal investigation for organized theft and criminal conspiracy and “partially admitted” their involvement after 96 hours of questioning, Beccuau announced late Wednesday.
In the 11 days since the heist, only one relic has surfaced so far — Eugénie’s crown, damaged but salvageable and dropped in the escape — while a trove made up of the diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise as a wedding gift as well as jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense remain missing.
“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable,” Beccuau said, adding that there’s “still time to give them back.”
Experts have since warned it’s likely they’ll be dismantled and melted down and the stones re-cut for potential sale.
The heist earlier this month lasted less than eight minutes in total, exposing major security gaps in the one of the world’s most popular museums. Police said the thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced their way through a window and then smashed display cases some 30 minutes after opening. They then fled the scene on motorbikes.
With News Wire Services
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/10/30/five-more-arrested-louvre-heist-jewels-still-missing/