Transcription
The Louvre Museum in Paris was burglarized on Sunday, October 19th. A total of eight priceless jewels were stolen.
Hello and welcome to a new episode of Learn French with the News. Today, I'm talking about an event that has just shaken France: a burglary at the Louvre Museum in Paris. As usual, I'm giving you access to a free vocabulary sheet that includes all the words in this video, as well as the transcript.
The Louvre Museum is probably the most famous French museum in the world. It's home to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It's a very secure place, almost impossible to break into. And yet, on Sunday, October 19th, 2025, the Louvre was the victim of a burglary around 9:30 a.m. This burglary was very quick. It lasted barely seven minutes.
Three or four people, at this time we don't know exactly, entered the Apollo Gallery. This is where the crown diamonds are exhibited. About twenty jewels dating from the Ancien Régime to the Second Empire. But then, how did the burglars, how did the criminals, manage to get in, to penetrate such a secure place? They used a basket that was on a truck or a freight elevator and they parked it right in front of the Louvre, on a wing located on the Seine side, on the river side. Thanks to this machine, they were able to reach a sort of small balcony. Then, they forced the window by sawing the bars with an angle grinder or a chainsaw.
Once inside, they headed towards the display cases containing the jewels and in particular towards two high-security display cases. They then broke them open to steal some of the jewels. Nine jewels were stolen, they left with nine jewels. Naturally, these are objects of inestimable value: historical, heritage, and financial. Among the stolen pieces are a tiara, a necklace, and an earring from the parure of Queen Amélie and Queen Hortense, as well as Marie-Louise's emerald necklace. One of the stolen jewels, Empress Eugénie's large bodice bow, was acquired by the Louvre in 2008 for the sum of 6.72 million euros. It's a jewel composed of 2,634 diamonds and 11 centimeters wide.
If you're wondering: yes, the alarms did go off! At the time of the break-in, the alarms on the exterior window sounded. As did the alarms on the two high-security display cases. Five security officers immediately intervened. They alerted the police and evacuated the public, because at that time, the Louvre Museum was already open and welcoming its first visitors of the day. It was thanks to the responsiveness of the security guards that the criminals escaped, and they even abandoned their equipment there. They then left the premises on T-Max scooters.
There's an interesting vocabulary word here. This is a clarification, I think, that's important if you're an English speaker. A scooter in French is a mobylette, it's a kind of small motorcycle and it's not a scooter. At the moment, the suspects are still on the run, so they fled and have not been found by the police. But naturally, they are actively wanted by law enforcement. The Louvre Museum then closed its doors for the rest of the day. And as I told you, visitors were immediately evacuated without having any idea of the burglary that had just taken place. Clarification: no one was injured during the criminals' operation, during the burglary.
Currently, around sixty investigators are working on this case. According to them, the burglars were an experienced and well-prepared team. They were professional burglars. The Paris prosecutor is raising the possibility of a sponsor, therefore a person who ordered this burglary, who ordered the theft, and small-timers. Small-timers are the people on the ground, the burglars who carry out the theft. The hypothesis of foreign interference is not favored at this stage. For the Paris prosecutor, we are more in the hypothesis of serious crime. And according to her, in this kind of case, there can be two objectives: either to meet the demands of a sponsor, or to resell the precious stones for money laundering.
Clues were found on site. First of all, the truck with the basket was abandoned by the criminals, abandoned along the museum on the Seine side. At the scene, the police also found two angle grinders, so these are electric saws, a blowtorch, gloves, gasoline, a walkie-talkie, and a blanket. And a yellow vest was also found a little further away that was lost or abandoned during the escape by one of the burglars. It was probably used to pass himself off as a worker, quite simply. A coin was also found.
One of the stolen jewels, the crown of Empress Eugenie, was found near the museum in its case. A case is a box used to hold jewelry. In total, eight jewels disappeared, not nine. This crown was certainly abandoned during the escape. I told you, we found it, it survived the theft, but unfortunately, it was damaged. This jewel, this crown, contains more than 1,300 diamonds and 56 emeralds.
The last theft recorded at the Louvre, before this burglary, dates back to 1998. It was a painting by Camille Corot that had been stolen and to this day, it has still not been found. There were many reactions, notably from political figures and historians. And around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, Emmanuel Macron reacted on X by posting this tweet...
There, this news story is over. Let me know in the comments if you would like a part 2 of this video, once we have a little more information, once the investigators have made a little more progress in their investigation. If you enjoy learning French through current events, please give it a "like" to support my work. And if you're new here, subscribe to see all my videos.