Paris’ Louvre Museum had already been open for 30 minutes, and welcomed hundreds of visitors through its doors, when thieves in yellow vests scaled a truck-mounted ladder to the second-floor balcony of the Apollo Gallery, home to the French crown jewels, among other treasures.

Using an angle grinder to force open a window, they took just four minutes to enter the room, cut open two cases displaying Napoleonic jewels, grab nine pieces and flee back down the ladder.

Beyond its seemingly cinematic plot, the robbery was a clear example of how thieves have started targeting cultural institutions not necessarily for their prized paintings, but for artifacts that can be dismantled, stripped or melted down for their expensive parts.

Thieves executed a similarly daring raid on Dresden’s histor

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