A ladder truck, an angle-grinder, a maxi-scooter, and seven minutes. That appears to be all it took for thieves to nab priceless jewelry from the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum. The Paris prosecutor estimates the value at $102 million.

Fingers are being pointed over apparent security flaws, but the theft speaks to something much broader, too: Criminals’ boundless hunger for gold and other precious metals and gems — not fine art — as the value of these commodities soars.

Museum raids are becoming ever more audacious as the gold price has doubled in a year and jumped tenfold in two decades. A stampede of investors fleeing once safe assets such as government bonds makes real stuff you can keep in safes or vaults hugely desirable.

No museum’s secure

The smash and grabbers are taki

See Full Page