The world-famous museum in Paris is still closed on Monday after a masked gang raided one of its galleries.

A nice feel good comedy-crime-caper-film-plot news story for you all!

Breaking into the Louvre using a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift and cutting through a glass window? Excellent hijinks. Stealing the Fr*nch Crown Jewels? Cartoon villain material. Geting away by scooter? Of course you are.

10 / 10 would read again.

liz-society

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    25·
    22 天前

    A tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III

    An emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from Empress Marie Louise

    A tiara, necklace and single earring from the sapphire set that belonged to Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense

    A brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”

    If these weren’t a targeted theft with a buyer prepared beforehand they’re going to be very hard to sell.

    Incidentally that bow is absolutely gorgeous

    Museums seem to be fairly weak on security. If you’re aiming to heist something worth millions and you have a plan for selling it they’re probably the best place to do a burglary. The days of bank heists like the bolsheviks did are dead but there are other places worth millions that are far easier.

    • DerRedMax [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      21 天前

      Crowns and diadems can easily be broken apart and sold in small parts.

      The thieves “are not going to keep them intact, they are going to break them up, melt down the valuable metal, recut the valuable stones and hide evidence of their crime,” Marinello said.

      It would be difficult to sell these jewels intact, he said.

  • Blakey [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    22 天前

    the article doesn’t really tell us EVERYTHING about it because it doesn’t point out that this is extremely funny

  • KoboldKomrade [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    22 天前

    I had to go past security for a small museum in fucking suburban Florida. I don’t remember exactly but I swear they had staff in every room and a couple of clearly marked security guys roaming.

    How tf does the Louvre not have better control of entry/exit? Like if I smashed a case there, the guys at the doors would have had a good chance to grab me.

    Wonder if they did have some guards but they’re not allowed to stop anything? Seems kinda unlikely knowing how defensive the west is about property, but it wouldn’t surprise me if their insurance or something made them go non-confrontational. (Like how most big stores won’t physically stop you from stealing, but will record/report you. But is that an american thing because we wouldn’t stop shooting people over it?)

    Unrelated: That museum had some really cool art from around the world. Lots of stuff loaned iirc. Nothing “fancy”, lots of pottery and “household” stuff, one exhibit on meso/south American pre-contact art/culture (it was more focused but I can’t recall exactly where they were focusing on), decent amount of paintings by some notable names. Really was worth the like $10 and a couple hours. Highly suggest people go to local places like museums. Almost always cool.

    • daniyeg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      21 天前

      Four thieves used a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d’Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

      They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and stole items from two glass display cases.

      A preliminary report has revealed that one in three rooms in the area of the museum raided had no CCTV cameras, according to French media.

      Goulet told the BBC the gallery’s localised alarm was recently broken, and “we have to wait for the investigation in order to know if the alarm was disactivated”.

      France’s culture ministry said the museum’s wider alarms did sound and staff followed protocol by contacting security forces and protecting visitors.

      She described the thieves as seemingly being “experienced” with a well-prepared plan to flee on two scooters.

      so in short, the thieves came through a balcony, smashed the window and went inside, scared the guards to get out of the room, and smashed and grabbed whatever they could and got out on two scooters they prepared beforehand. looks like the alarms near the room did not work which allowed them a small window to escape.

      it’s not an ocean 11 heist or anything but it looks like whoever the thieves are, disabled or at least knew about the broken alarms. i think they’ll eventually catch the thieves it’s just too hard these days to gone unnoticed but by then it’ll probably be too late and they would’ve already ruined the jewellery.