The art detective Arthur Brand on why thieves may have targeted the Louvre jewellery and why time is of the essence if it is to be found in one piece
It took less than 10 minutes. At 9.30am on Sunday, four men arrived in a truck outside the Louvre in Paris, driving right up under a balcony and setting up a ladder with a furniture hoist. Two of them casually climbed up to the balcony and cut through the reinforced glass of a window; on the other side of the glass was the Apollo gallery, the most ornate and arguably the most beautiful room in the museum, Helen Pidd hears. Using an angle grinder, they broke into cases holding France’s crown jewels, before escaping back down the ladder and disappearing on motorbikes.
The audacious burglary of one of the most famous museums in the world has shocked France, especially because the jewels had been bought back for the nation after originally being sold, reports the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis.
