Looted Louvre treasures may never be found, experts say, as museum remains closed

Visitors line up outside the Louvre on Monday, October 20, 2025. Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

The Louvre museum in Paris announced it would remain closed Monday as investigations continue into Sunday’s extraordinary theft of historic jewelry – and experts say the prospects of recovering the treasures are slim.

In a post on X, the museum said it regretted Monday’s closure, as France begins to digest the implications of the brazen heist in which robbers made off with artefacts from the French crown jewels, dating from the Napoleonic era.

The thieves used a truck-mounted ladder to gain access to the Apollo Gallery, one of the most ornate rooms in the Louvre, through a window. Armed with tools including an angle grinder and a blowtorch, they targeted two high-security display cas