9 Bizarre Details of Louvre Heist That Shocked the World

This heist at the Louvre has not only. stunned all of France, frankly, it's. stunned the entire world with it now. being reported that an estimated $12. million worth of jewels were stolen. So, the race is on to not just find the. culprits, but to recover the items. before they can be destroyed. Welcome to. Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm. Jesse Weber. [Music]. If I were to tell you that in 8 minutes, seven minutes during busy touring hours.

at the infamous Louv in Paris, that. using a truck, a ladder, a disc cutter, and scooters, a group of thieves would. be able to pull off a heist that will go. down in history. As ABC has reported, an. estimated $12 million worth of jewels. were stolen. Would you even believe. that? That's the reality. That is the. reality. It's unbelievable. I was. talking about this before. Somebody. goes, "Oh, it's like Mission. Impossible." No, it's Mission. Impossible. It's Mission Impossible. And. these thieves, they're at large right.

now at the time of this recording. In. fact, according to the New York Times, here's the timeline. Okay. October 19th, 9:30 a.m., the thieves parked their. truck underneath the windows of the. Apollo Gallery that houses the French. Crown Jewels. It's on the upper floor. By the way, they were apparently. disguised as construction workers. wearing these yellow orange vests. They. were even able to secure the surrounding. area around the truck with construction. cones. What do they do next? There's. this electric ladder that comes out from.

the truck and they climb up it, go to. the upper floor and onto a balcony. Then. you remember that disc cutter, the angle. grinder. Well, they use that to carve. into the glass. The security alarm goes. off. We're going to talk about the. police response a little bit later. And. then they allegedly proceed to threaten. the museum security guards with the. cutter. break two display cases, grab a. bunch of historic jewelry items, and by. 9:38 a.m. they jump on these Yamaha. T-Max scooters, these motorbikes. outside, and take off. They head towards.

A6 Highway and the city of Leon. So, the. actual theft took about 7 minutes. Again, no one has been arrested at the. time of this recording. And the New York. Times has reported this detail, too. So. according to Paris public prosecutor. Laurau, the thieves got this electric ladder for. the truck by falsely claiming it was. going to be used for a move and then. allegedly when someone came to check it. out to verify this, they threatened that. person. That person apparently filed a.

complaint in a town miles away from. Paris. You know what the name of the. town is? Louv. Yeah. As the prosecutor, prosecutor recall called it. A quote. troubling coincidence. It's one way to. put it. Now, get this. Listen to what. they end up with. Okay? They end up with. the tiara of Empress Eugenie, so wife of. Napoleon III, which contains 212 pearls, almost 2,000 diamonds, and almost 1,000. rosecut diamonds. They also get Empress. Eugene's decorative bow. So, you're.

talking almost 200 diamonds there. 200. rosecut diamonds. They also get Empress. Eugenie's brooch. There is a series of. 19th century sapphire jewelry items that. were reportedly worn by Hortens Debor, Queen of Holland, Maria Amale, Queen of. the French, Isabel Dorens, Duchess of. Guys, parts of Napoleon's emerald. wedding gift set. Apparently, Napoleon. gave emerald and diamond necklaces to. Marie Louise. This necklace includes 32.

emeralds as well as 1,138. diamonds. And these thieves also stole a. pair of emerald diamond earrings too. And apparently apparently they also. tried to make off with the crown of. Empress Eugenie but left it behind in. their dash to escape. It was damaged. during all of this. Now Paris public. prosecutor Ball who I mentioned before. announced that the items were estimated. to be worth $102 million. This is. according to a Louve curator. Doesn't. even take into account the historical.

loss as the prosecutor mentioned, but. they also weren't insured. It's kind of. common, but they weren't insured. And. there is a real danger that I want to. talk about in a little bit. There is a. real danger that these thieves will. destroy the items with beall saying, quote, "We can maybe hope that the. perpetrators think about it and won't. destroy these jewels for no reason." And. we'll talk about it because it's really. unique specific items that might be hard. to sell. So, right now, authorities are. part of a massive investigation across. the country. Apparently, around a.

hundred officers are involved. You have. these four suspects at large. However, there may be accompllices. French. President Emanuel Mcronone promised that. the thieves would be caught for quote an. attack on a heritage that we cherish. because it is our history. Justice. Minister Gerard Dharminan said that the. heist gave a quote negative and. deplorable image of his country of. France, saying, "What is certain is that. we failed and that the French people all. feel like they've been robbed." And. look, yes, there have been high-profile.

thefts before. 1994, in less than a. minute, two men stole the scream. painting in Oslo, Norway's National. Museum. 2000, Sesan's view of Opairw was. stolen, never recovered, from the Asha. Museum in Oxford. 2017, a gold coin. worth millions was lifted from the Boda. Museum in Berlin. You have the heist. here in the United States in Boston's. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum back in. 1990 when two men dressed up as Boston. police officers. They conned their way.

in. They tied up the security guards and. they walked off with 13 works of art. Rembrandt Reier Da Manet and even at the. Louv 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by a. museum worker, but it was recovered two. years later in Florence, Italy. However, this one this one just shocks on a whole. other level given I will say how brazen. it was and how successful it was. Now, it has been reported that the Louve has. reopened today, first time since the.

theft. I will say this, okay, I am. curious and this is something that I. want to get into whether it is connected. in any way to some recent thefts that. we've seen. Right back in September, gold nuggets worth almost $700,000. were pilferred from Paris's natural. history museum. There was an antique. Chinese porcelain worth $11 million that. was taken from a museum in Lamages. Last. year, seven items were stolen from the.

Cognac J Museum in Paris. Also last. year, a number of 20th century works. were stolen by armed criminals at the. Hyram Museum in Burgundy. So, is this. all connected? What is going on? What. can we expect? Let's talk about it. Now, I know this is kind of a different story. than we typically cover on Sidebar. So, for that, let me bring in a different. sponsor than we usually have here on. Sidebar. It's a brand called Wild Grain. Now, Wild Grain is the first bake from. Frozen subscription box for artisal. bread, seasonal pastries, fresh pastas. Their products bake in 25 minutes or.

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you've been following about this, you've. been talking about it. So, I definitely. wanted your opinion. Let me just start. here. I mean, I kind of talked about how. unbelievable this is. How on earth did. they do this? Now, I me, you know, practically I mentioned it, right? how. they got the ladder. They were dressed. up as construction workers, made their. way up, but like legitimately, how on. earth is something like this carried. out? It's shocking. Does it tell you. something about the level of potential. expertise here? Well, thank you so much. for having me, Jesse. And I I've talked.

about this before on on NewsNation, on. my social media platforms, that I feel. that because of the way that this this. area was targeted and and I know. obviously these are priceless works, but. there are other priceless works in the. in the lube, right? This isn't the only. piece of of priceless works. And so, I. believe that this area was obviously. targeted, but it was, I think, targeted. because of some kind of inside. information that they had. In my. opinion, they had to have known that. that was the sort of area of the Lou, that sen area, the area that faces the.

Sen um that that was under construction. And it had been under construction for. quite some time. So, no one would. necessarily bulk at that uh basket that. you see, the basket ladder that you see. up there for for a bit of a period of. time. Also, I I think that they knew. that one of the rooms actually did not. have operable CCTV. At least that's what. the French press um is reporting. And I. think to do something like that in broad. daylight, in my opinion, they had to. have um that information. And if I may, I want to talk about the broad daylight.

thing really quick. A lot of people say. that that's actually really brazen. >> But if you think about it, the reality. is is the museum was open at that time. So security, in my opinion, is actually. at its weakest point um at that time. because you have visitors, but then you. also have to secure the artifacts versus. at nighttime it's just about securing. the artifacts. That that's a good point. And also if you pull up as construction. crew, you know, there might be an. explanation for why someone's there as. opposed to showing up at two in the.

morning. You mentioned an inside job. This is something I've I've thought. about as well or inside information. A. lot has been said about this was. targeted and they knew exactly what they. were going after, right? Going only. after the jewels. Doesn't appear that. they even attempted to go after any oil. master works. They didn't go after the. Mona Lisa, which was relatively nearby. They didn't appear to even try to take. off with the 140 karat region diamond, right? What does that tell you? >> Yeah. So, what that tells me is that in.

my opinion, again, none of this has been. factually proven, but in in my opinion, what I believe is that they were simply. there to make the most bang for their. buck, if you will. Um, again, these. jewels are priceless. There's not. necessarily a dollar amount on them. Maybe hundreds of millions of dollars. The thing is is their money comes from. their provenence, right? Their money. comes from the fact that they're. Napoleonic jewels. My guess is they. don't probably care about that and are. willing to take the hit on it and. separate all of it um and then sell.

those diamonds, the sapphires, rubies. kind of on their own. So, I think that's. more what they were looking for. They. weren't looking to steal a large piece. of art to necessarily sell that as a. whole on the black market. I I do want. to get into that a little bit about what. they may do with them. Let's put that to. the side for a second because I I think. that's really interesting in this kind. of race to find them, race to find these. items before that maybe potentially. they're melted down. You put that to the. side for a second. This level of.

sophistication, right? So, I mentioned. before how they obtain the ladder or. seemingly obtain the ladder uh using, you know, they had the the truck, the. ladder, the disc cutter, they had the. scooters, but there were mistakes, right? They left the empress crown, okay, that I mentioned before. They. apparently leave two uh angle grinders, walkie-talkie, gloves, gasoline, blanket, blowtorrch. There was reporting. that they tried to set fire either to. the ladder or the truck outside. But you. think about forensics that uh the Paris.

public prosecutor, Laura Beall, who I. mentioned before, seems to suggest that. they're doing forensic testing on this. Is there an element of this that was. sloppy? So, the element to me that was. sloppy, and I know uh people have kind. of pushed back at me, but seven minutes. is a really long time, Jesse. Seven. minutes is a really long time to conduct. a robbery. I think in my opinion, that's. actually the sloppiest part. Now, granted, three of the minutes was spent. getting in and getting out, but four. minutes. So, if you watched that uh I. think it was a Tik Tok video, I don't. remember that was recorded by a.

bystander, they are literally just. standing there four minutes with that. angle grinder. That is taking that is. hugely sloppy. When you do something. like that, you want to get in, get out. You don't want to just be standing. there. And that's what they were doing. So, in my opinion, if we just want to. like really start at the basic level of. this, I believe the fact that they took. four minutes to do this is indicative of. being sloppy in the first place because. that's that's a pretty long time. actually.

>> In other words, do you believe that this. could be connected to organized crime? Do you think that these are people who. might have done something similar in the. past or is this a one-off? Is this like. it does suggest to you they didn't. properly plan for it enough that they. didn't have that level of. professionalism? uh because and I'll get. in a little bit. You know, there's other. things that have happened relatively. recently. Um but do you think it's. potentially connected to organized. crime? There's also been theories that. you might have this very wealthy wealthy. individual or group of individuals who.

have outsourced this to try to get a. hold of these jewels. Uh are we thinking. about it the right way? Tell me. >> Yeah, I do think it could actually be. connected to a bigger network. Whether. that's organized crime or not, obviously. I don't know. And the reason I think. that is because of the level of I guess. we could say intel or intelligence that. they had to know uh which ones to get to. know which systems would be down. That's. not something that a firsttime cat. burglar necessarily would have. That is. someone that has intelligence very much. if you think about it like the espionage.

world on the inside. And that person is. probably on a payroll of some sort with. these organized crime organizations. And. so that's what tells me it might be. connected to something bigger. Do I know. that for certain? No. But it's really. that level of intelligence they have. that kind of tips me off. >> So I I mentioned before that there are. these recent thefts, right? Do you think. they're connected to this? Do you think. investigators are looking at what. happened recently and saying, "Is this a. string? Is this a pattern? Are these the.

same individuals or same network?". >> 100%. There's no doubt that they're. doing that. That would not be that would. be poor police work quite frankly if. they did not do that. And that's I do. think it could have all been connected. At the same time, Paris in and of. itself, and again, the French have. admitted this. This has been all. throughout the French press are having. issues in terms of staffing and in terms. of security at a lot of their museums. because of strikes, because of unions, all those kinds of things. And one of. the things that the Louv did actually. put forth, I think it was towards the. end of last year, but I could be.

incorrect on that date, is a several. hundred million euro package of security. to enhance security at the loop. Now, McRone actually approved that that was. approved. Um, but obviously it hadn't. been put into place yet. So, they know. and are fully aware that there are. security lapses in some of these. museums. And to your point about the. other museums that have experienced. this, I think they started out, and this. I don't mean to speak poorly of them, but at sort of lesser known museums to.

test uh whether or not they could do. this and do this successfully with the. Lou sort of being the top, right, in. terms of security and all of that. And. so I'm wondering if some of that earlier. last year was almost a testing ground, if you will, for this. >> And and I think there's a race to time, right? Because what are they going to do. with these items? Do where do they. offload them? Do they fence them? Do. they put them in new pieces? Do they. melt down the gold? I mean, NBC is.

reporting that there are experts who say. that these items are so specific, that. they are so unique, you can't just sell. them without raising red flags. So, you. got to melt them down. Um, and if that's. the case, you have to work really, really fast before they do that. Talk. What do you think? So, a couple things that I think um. again and I guess speaking earlier to. your theory about you know a big. collector commissioned this. I don't. think that that's the case here in my. opinion. I think if a big collector. commissioned this, it wouldn't be these.

kinds of jewels that would take so um so. much precision, right, to to melt down. But I do think um in this case, these. jewels are hot, right, and they are. highly recognizable. These are hot. recognizable jewels. So, yes, there is. always a black market for everything. I. mean, listen, someone may purchase these. and then never see the light of day. again, but so many people in this world. know that they're obviously stolen. Collectors tend to want to show their. items, and so they'd have a really hard. time showing those um to people to see.

But I also think that even though it's. significantly devaluing the jewels, taking them apart, um it is still. probably tens of millions of dollars. that the jewels in and of themselves are. worth. I have read experts, you know, art restoration experts, jewel experts. have said that this can all be done. within the span of a week. So, I hate to. sound like a pessimist, but in my.

opinion, I think some of these pieces. have already been taken apart, >> but if they did take it apart, do they. need specific machinery? Do they need to. go to specific places to do it? And. would that set off a red flag? >> It could. Again, obviously, I'm not a. jeweler. That's not a background that I. have. So, I I don't know um how these. pieces would be taken apart. Obviously, you just don't start ripping jewels out. of it. It doesn't work like that. Um but. yes, that could absolutely tip someone. off. But again, going back to I guess my. theory that it's part of a larger. network, I think they have people on. their payroll who do this to be.

completely honest with you. >> And if this was sold on the black. market, like you said, if that really is. something, and let's say you have a. collector or a group of people who are. like, I'm not showing it to anybody. I'm. putting in my vault, whatever the case. may be, the ability to track private. transactions on the black market is how. difficult? >> Oh my gosh, it's incredibly difficult. Uh, listen, this one might be easier, right? Because of the level of scrutiny. that it has all of the eyes in it. This. one could be easier, but not by much.

Um, and so again, and people really are. coming for me that I'm saying a. collector didn't commission this. I just. my gut tells me that's not the case in. this. >> Are you surprised there are no arrests. at the time of this recording? >> I'm actually not surprised that there. are no arrests. And you know, as you. mentioned before, the items were left. behind, right? Uh that angle grinder, I. think, was left behind, gloves, those. kinds of things. Now, they might be able. to get DNA from inside of the gloves, right? Fingers inside the gloves. But.

again, here, just like here in the US, that DNA is only going to hit or match. if DNA is already in the system. And I. believe that they probably used. individuals who may have not had known. criminal records just for that case in. case um something like that happened. I. they're not going to get DNA off of that. angle grinder because the person clearly. had gloves um when they were wearing. them. Probably not off that gasoline. can. So, I'm not necessarily surprised. to be to be honest. I know I sound like.

a pessimist. >> But what is an investigation like this. really look like? I mean, it was. reported by ABC News that there is this. Israeli security for firm known as the. CGI group that is now apparently part of. this investigation. and they they. actually helped to solve the Dresden. Green Vault burglary in Germany where. over $130 million worth of jewelry and. diamonds were stolen. CNN has reported. that Interpol's cultural heritage crime. unit may now take part uh in this. investigation if there's an. international connection. I I reported.

earlier that they have about almost 100. officers in France that are part of. this. What is an investigation like this. look like? >> Yeah, there's no question. I I was. surprised actually to not hear until. really today that Interpol was getting. involved. Interpol usually gets involved. right away, particularly in Europe. because countries are obviously so close. to each other. Um, and people are. consistently transiting in and out of. them. That's 196 different law. enforcement um, officers across Europe, across the world's essentially the. world's largest police force. So, there's no question they are working.

with Interpol. I think it's actually. extremely smart to essentially contract. out with that Israeli group as well. because this is their background. this. is what they have successfully done and. so I commend the French um on on doing. something like that. They could bring in. the US although I don't think they need. us. I think they have plenty of ability. to do that. My guess is in terms of. tracking these individuals, this is. going to be really similar to cases that. we see here and that you work backwards.

So what you want to see is what cell. phones are pinging off of this area at. 9:30. Now, it's going to be a lot more. than at 2:30, but they'll probably start. there and sort of work their way back. >> The part of someone would look at says, "Wait a minute. They're captured on. video, right? They're captured on. surveillance. We know kind of what. direction the scooters were going." I. mentioned that they seem to have an idea. of how they got the ladder. So, maybe. they're working their way from that. before the theft. How does someone. seemingly disappear though out of Paris?

I mean, have you you've probably been to. Paris, I'm assuming, before. It's it is. the traffic is pretty insane. Um, so and. a lot of people are on motorcycles. because it's just a much easier way to. navigate the city. And so if that. burglary wasn't reported right away, which it wasn't. there was a lag time in. terms of security getting there. They. already had a head start in my opinion. and were probably on their way out of. the city because I think multiple people.

on motorcycles is not in my opinion. going to raise anyone's attention at. 9:30 in the morning in Paris. >> I also was wondering if you have at. least four people right involved in. this, maybe accompllices, the more. people that are involved, the greater. chance someone messes up. And I wonder. if that's something that law enforcement. is going to be waiting for or maybe it. already happened. >> I mean, it may have already happened. Um, but yes, you always want I don't. want to give criminals tips, but yes,

you tend to want to keep these things. small. You don't want gangs of dozens of. people, right? Um, you know, going into. museums because yes, someone is more. likely to to mess up. But for people in. if you want my honest opinion, I believe. they probably practiced this and I think. they probably practiced this before. I. don't think that this was something that. they obviously woke up and decided to do. one day. I think that they they did. practice this practiced it. >> in other buildings, practiced it in. homes, those kinds of things. I I think.

this was rehearsed. >> Even the part about threatening the. security guards at the Louv with the the. cutters. I mean, I thought that was an. interesting component to it as well. Well, they were unarmed, right? As far. as we know, um they were unarmed. Um I. don't think that was surprising. They're. going to threaten people with whatever. weapons they have closest to themselves. Um but maybe they didn't expect security. to get there that quickly and then had. to resort uh to to threatening them with.

that. But. >> let let me ask you this. You you. mentioned how this could have happened. um lapses and then what do you do next? The reason I say this is um the Lou's uh. museum director and apologies if I'm. mispronouncing the name here, Lawrence. DAR is supposed to meet with France's. Senate cultural committee today to. answer questions about how this could. happen. By the way, uh the court of. comp, the major auditing institution in. France is preparing a report that. according to ABC News, which has.

reviewed a portion of it, will. reportedly conclude that there has been. a delay in quote deployment of equipment. attended to ensure protection of the. works within the Louvre from a period of. 2019 through 2024. That quote. operational implementation appears. uneven and generally very limited. that. some rooms at the Louv are not. completely covered by video. surveillance. NBC reporting that a. government spokesperson said French. President Mcronone had called for quote. an acceleration of heightened security.

measures at the museum. Now ab now I. will say this NBC also reported that. interior minister Lorent Nunez said the. museum's alarms were working saying. quote there was a burglary at the Louv. Some of the most precious jewels in. France were stolen. So obviously it's a. failure. There is nothing else I can. say. But the alarm system worked. perfectly. As soon as the window was. attacked, it was activated. Police were. notified and within 3 minutes they were. on the scene. The whole system worked. It didn't fail, but what happened has.

happened. So I guess the question is to. you Tracy, a you know, how did this. really happen? But b, what do they do in. the future? >> So, and I I read that report too, Jesse, that I want to focus on the three. minutes that you said. That is a very. long response time. I'm gonna be. completely honest. That is, in my. opinion, a very long response time in a. museum of the stature that the Lou is. The reality is is they should be able to. get there. Some kind of security should. be able to get there in under 60.

seconds. Full stop. So, what that tells. me is they may have all of this. equipment. And to your point, yes, it. was shown that not all of them were. covered the same. Not all of the areas. in the in the Lou were covered the same, but they don't have the manpower. they. do not have the physical manpower in my. opinion to respond in an appropriate. amount of time. And that is the piece in. my opinion that's not being addressed. I. don't believe that the report um. addressed that as well. And it's been. it's my understanding that reporting has.

stated that they really have a shortage. quite frankly of of security all. throughout Paris um and throughout these. museums. And so I think that's where the. security shortfall really really lies. Aside from obviously not deploying. equipment properly. >> Tracy, before I let you go, I wanted to. ask you this. Um maybe I'm reading a. little bit too many Daniel Silva, Gabriel Alain books, but a theft like. this, could it be connected to something. larger? And I don't just mean like we. talked about or organized crime. There.

are theories. Could it be connected to. drug trafficking? There's also the. question, could it be connected to a. terrorist network? Is that something. that's real? Is there thefts like this. that are connected to a broader criminal. organization, to a terrorist network? Have you seen anything like that before? Anything from this at this point that. would suggest that? And if not, what. would you be on the lookout to see if. it's potentially connected to something. like that? Well, obviously my work doing.

counterterrorism, I've never seen a. connection with uh robbery of this. statute. Yes, I see connections with. organized crime and those kinds of. things, but it's more about logistical. trade routes and things like that. Same. thing with terrorist connections to. drugs. They're not looking to move the. same product, if you will. They just. want connections to their transportation. lines, to logistics to make things. easier for them. So, I don't necessarily. see that connection. It would be, I. guess, more feasible with drugs, but. again, drug traffickers tend to not. operate in this brazen, this public uh.

of a way. And so, I tend to lean more. towards organized crime. But that's just. my opinion. >> Tracy Walder, we value your opinion. here. Thank you so much for coming on. Always appreciate it. >> Thank you, Jesse. >> And that is all we have for you right. now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank. you so much for joining us. And as. always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get. your podcasts. You can follow me on X or. Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll see you. next time.

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