Paris: Holly Barker and her husband Jake were third in line at the Louvre the morning of October 19.

The couple from Indianapolis had a plan: head straight for the Mona Lisa , before the crowds, then shoot towards Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People and a famous painting of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David. Fourth stop was a place they had heard was a mini-version of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors: the Apollo Gallery, with its collection of royal jewels.

It was 9.32 when Holly Barker stepped inside the gilded hall and took a photo. As she stopped to admire a wedding gift that Napoleon had given his second wife – a necklace glittering with 32 emeralds and more than 1100 diamonds – she heard the first of three loud bangs. It was 9.34, and masked thieves were about to barge through the

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