Nov. 6, 2025

"THE LOUVRE HEIST: $100 MILLION IN CROWN JEWELS STOLEN IN 4 MINUTES - HOW DNA CAUGHT THE THIEVES"

"THE LOUVRE HEIST: $100 MILLION IN CROWN JEWELS STOLEN IN 4 MINUTES - HOW DNA CAUGHT THE THIEVES"
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Reid Carter breaks down the robbery of the decade - thieves stole eight pieces of French Crown Jewels worth $100 million from the Louvre in broad daylight, spending only four minutes inside. Used truck-mounted lift to access second-floor balcony. Escaped on motor scooters. Left behind helmet, gloves, circular saw, walkie-talkie. DNA on those items led police to three suspects in less than a week using France's 4.4 million profile database. All petty criminals from impoverished Seine-Saint-Denis suburb - not Ocean's Eleven professionals. Jewels still missing, feared dismantled. Louvre admits twenty years of security failures. One thief still at large.

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Friday, November seventh,

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twenty twenty five. October nineteenth, twenty twenty five, Paris, France.

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Nine a m. The Louver Museum opens its doors. Eight

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million visitors passed through annually, most famous museum in the world,

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home to the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and

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what remains of the French crown Jewels. Thirty minutes later,

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those Crown jewels are gone. A truck pulls up to

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the museum's riverfront side Que Francois Miterane, right along the

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Seine broad daylight tourists everywhere. The truck has a mechanical lift,

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the kind furniture movers used to hoist couches to second

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floor apartments. Nine thirty am. The lift extends up to

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the balcony of the Gallery Dapolon. The Apollo Gallery second floor,

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one of the most ornate rooms in the museum, gilded

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Baroque hall, painted ceilings and glass cases containing what's left

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of France's crown jewels, the ones that survived the French Revolution,

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the ones Napoleon gave his wives, the ones French empresses

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war at coronations four men wearing reflective yellow vests and

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hard hats, construction workers. Nobody questions them. This is Paris,

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there's always construction. Two men climb the lift, reach the balcony,

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use a disc cutter to slice through the window. Glass shatters.

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Security alarms immediately trigger, but alarms don't stop determined thieves.

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They're inside museum. Visitors are in the gallery, Security guards

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are in the gallery. Everyone just watching, frozen, confused. Is

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this a drill? The two men pull out power tools,

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circular saws, angle grinders, cut through the glass display cases.

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Not elegant, not surgical, just brute force, smashing and grabbing.

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They take jewelry from two cases. Tiaras, necklaces, earrings, brooches, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds.

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Eight pieces total, worth eighty eight million euros about one

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hundred million dollars in American dollars, but the real value priceless.

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These are pieces of French history, worn by queens and empresses,

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symbols of national heritage. Four minutes that's how long they're

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inside the building. Four minutes from window breach to exit.

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They climb back down the lift. Two accomplices waiting on

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the street with high powered motor scooters. The thieves try

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to set the lift on fire, can't get it to

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catch no time security and police are responding. They jump

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on the scooters speed away along the banks of the Seine,

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weaving through Paris traffic toward the Boulevard Periphyrique, then onto

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the A six auto route heading south. Total time from

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arrival to escape eight minutes, less time than it takes

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to order coffee at a Parisian cafe. Behind them, broken glass,

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shattered display cases, one dropped crown too big to fit

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through the opening they'd cut in the glass. They'd deformed

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it trying to force it through, then abandoned it in

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the street. Scattered across the crime scene a motorcycle helmet,

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a circular saw, gloves, a gas can, a walkie talkie,

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a reflective vest, smart enough to plan a one hundred

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million dollar heist, too stupid to clean up after themselves.

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France is in shock. The Louver. The Louver has been

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robbed in broad daylight, with visitors present, like something out

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of a movie, except this is real, and eight priceless

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pieces of French heritage are gone. President Emmanuel Macron calls

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it an attack on a heritage that we cherish because

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it is our history. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin admits we

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have failed. The museum director offers to resign, But French

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police have something The thieves didn't count on. DNA left

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all over the crime scene, on the helmet, the gloves,

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the scooters, the broken glass, the mechanical lift, and France

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has something else, a database four point four million DNA

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profiles every criminal convicted or even suspected of certain crimes

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for the past twenty seven years. Less than a week

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after the heist, police arrest two suspects. Three days later

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they arrest five more. Today, four are charged. Three of

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the four thieves are in custody, one still at large.

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The jewels still missing, probably being dismantled into individual stones

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as we speak. I'm read Carter today, the Louver heist,

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the robbery of the decade. How petty criminals from the

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Paris suburbs pulled off one of history's most brazen museum thefts,

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How DNA caught them in less than a wee, and

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how the real crime was the Louver's twenty years of

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security failures that made it all possible. This is celebrity trials.

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Let's start at the beginning. The Louver, founded in seventeen

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ninety three after the French Revolution. Originally a royal palace

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built in the twelfth century, transformed into a museum when

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revolutionaries decided that people should have access to art that

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once belonged only to kings. Today it's the most visited

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museum in the world eight point one million visitors last year,

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seventy two thousand square meters of exhibition space, three hundred

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eighty thousand objects, thirty five thousand works of art on display,

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among them the French Crown Jewels, or what's left of them.

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Most were broken up and sold during the revolution, but

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some survived and they're displayed in the Gallery Dapolon the

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Apollo Gallery on the second floor. This gally is stunning,

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built in the seventeenth century under Louis the fourteenth, gilded walls,

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painted ceilings by Charles le Bron, ornate Baroque architecture. It

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once housed the Royal gem collection. Today it houses what

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remains of the Crown jewels, including the Regent Diamond one

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hundred forty carrots, valued at fifty one million euros alone,

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and the Sanse Diamond at fifty five carrots. October nineteenth,

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twenty twenty five, Saturday morning, beautiful autumn day in Paris,

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Tourists flooding the city. The louver opens at nine am

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as usual, people line up to see the Mona Lisa,

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the Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo standard Saturday at

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the museum nine thirty a m. Thirty minutes after opening,

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a stolen truck arrives on Ques Francois Mitterrane, the river

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front side of the museum, parks right next to the building.

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Nobody stops it. No barriers, no ballards, just a public

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street where anyone can park. The truck has a mechanical

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basket lift mounted on it, the kind furniture movers use

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extends up to thirty feet, painted to look professional, yellow

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and white, legitimate looking. Four men exit the truck, wearing

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reflective yellow safety vests over their clothes, hard hats, work boots.

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They look like construction workers, maintenance crew. This is Paris.

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There's always scaffolding, always renovation, always workers fixing something. Nobody

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questions them. Two men climb into the basket of the lift.

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It extends upward, slowly, mechanically, up to the second floor

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balcony of the Apollo Gallery about twenty feet off the ground.

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Here's where the louverrous security failed catastrophically. The museum has cameras,

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lots of them, three hundred and fifty cameras inside the building,

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but outside on the perimeter only about twenty five cameras total,

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only five on the outer walls, and the camera on

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the Apollo Gallery facade pointed in the wrong direction, facing west,

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away from the window where the thieves were about to

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break in, so nobody saw them coming. Nobody noticed a

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furniture lift extending up to a second floor balcony at

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the most famous museum in the world. The two men

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reach the balcony, pull out a disc cutter, industrial power

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tool used for cutting through metal and glass. They slice

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through the window. Glass shatters. Security alarms trigger immediately high

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pitched whaling throughout the building. Museum security responds. Police are notified,

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but it takes time minutes and the thieves only need four.

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The two men climb through the broken window into the

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Apollo Gallery. Museum visitors are inside, looking at the jewels,

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looking at the paintings, looking at the ornate ceiling, now

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looking at two men in reflective vests climbing through a

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window with power tools. Security guards are in the gallery too,

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but their priority is protecting the visitor, getting people to safety,

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not confronting armed intruders with circular saws and angle grinders.

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The thieves don't waste time. They go straight for two

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display cases, high security cases, reinforced glass, locked, alarmed, doesn't matter.

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They use their power tools. Circular saws cut right through

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the glass. Not elegant, not sophisticated, just brute force. A

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louver security guard films them on his phone, captures the

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whole thing. Two men in yellow vests destroying display cases,

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pulling out jewelry, stuffing it into bags. Four minutes of chaos.

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They take eight pieces, specific pieces, targeted pieces. This wasn't random.

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They knew what they wanted. A tiara necklace and single

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earring from the sapphire perure of Queen Marie Amalie and

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Queen or Tense blue sapphires diamonds nineteenth century, worn by

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French royalty. An emerald nets cless and matching earrings. The

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Marie Louise necklace gifted by Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife,

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Empress Marie Louise in eighteen eleven. More than one thousand diamonds,

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priceless emeralds. One of the most significant pieces in the collection,

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a tiara and brooch from Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon

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the Third, mid nineteenth century, covered in diamonds. They try

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to take a ninth item, the crown of Empress Uzhenie

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gold more than two thousand diamonds, fifty six emeralds, eight

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gold eagles, but it's too big. The opening they cut

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in the glass case isn't large enough. They try to

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force it through, deform the crown, flatten it, bend, It

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still won't fit. No time. Police are coming. Guards are responding.

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They abandon the crown, leave it in the case. Nine

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thirty four a m. They climb back down through the

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window into the basket lift, descend to street level. Try

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to set the lift truck on fire. Poor gasoline. Use

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a lighter, it won't catch. The basket is metal, the

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gasoline isn't spreading. They're out of time. Two accomplices waiting

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on the street high powered motor scooters Yamaha sport bikes,

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fast maneuverable, perfect for escaping through Paris traffic. The four

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men jump on the scooters, two per bike, speed away

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along the qu Francois Miterane, following the Senne heading east

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through Paris. As they flee, one of them drops the

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crown of Empress Ougnie in the street, the ninth item

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they'd managed to grab, two thousand diamonds and fifty six emeralds,

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bouncing across the pavement. A louver staff member finds it

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minutes later, damaged, diamonds, missing, gold eagles, broken off but recoverable.

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Nine thirty eight am, eight minutes after they arrived, the

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thieves are gone, disappear into Paris traffic. Security footage captures

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them heading toward the Boulevard Peri Ferique, then on to

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the A six auto route, then nothing they vanish. Left

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behind at the scene the truck with the mechanical lift

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couldn't torch, it couldn't move, it just abandoned it. A

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motorcycle helmet, a circular saw, an angle grinder, gloves, a

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gas can, a walkie talkie, a reflective yellow vest, a blanket.

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In their rush to escape, these supposedly sophisticated thieves left

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behind a forensic bonanza DNA everywhere on the helmet, inside

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the gloves, on the lift, bucket, on the scooters they

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abandoned a few blocks away on the broken glass, from

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the display cases on the window frame. Paris Prosecutor lor

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Becuo would later say investigators collected one hundred and fifty

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forensic samples from the scene, fingerprints, DNA trace evidence, all

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of it waiting to be analyzed, all of it pointing

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directly at the thieves. But in that moment, as police

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arrived at the louver, all they knew was eight pieces

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of French now tional heritage were gone, worth one hundred

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million more importantly worth centuries of history. Napoleon's gifts to

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his wives, empresses, coronation jewels irreplaceable. The museum was evacuated,

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Apollo Gallery closed as a crime scene. Black curtain hung

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over the broken window. The remaining Crown jewels, including the

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Regent and Sancy diamonds, valued at tens of millions, were

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immediately transferred to the Bank of France for safekeeping. Can't

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risk losing anything else. President Macron issued a statement, an

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attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is

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our history. We will recover these jewels and bring the

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perpetrators to justice. Justice Minister Darminin admitted the obvious. We

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have failed. One can wonder why the windows hadn't been secured,

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why a basket lift was allowed on a public road.

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We have failed. Museum director Lawrence des Car offered her

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resignation Uch Your Minister Rachida Dati refused it, but Descar

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had to testify before the French Senate had to explain

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how this happened. Her testimony was devastating. Only one third

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of the museum's wings are under video surveillance. The camera

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on the Apollo Gallery balcony was pointed the wrong direction.

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Perimeter security has been a problem for a long time,

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certainly due to under investment. A subsequent investigation by cultural

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affairs inspectors found chronic structural underestimation of the risk of

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intrusion and theft at the louver for the last twenty years.

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Twenty years, two decades of knowing there was a problem,

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two decades of doing nothing. Make it make sense. The

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most visited museum in the world eight million people a year,

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housing some of humanity's greatest treasures, and they couldn't be

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bothered to point a camera at the balcony of the

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room containing the Crown Jewels. Your tax dollars at work, or,

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in this case, French tax euros. Same principle, massive institutional failure.

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Everyone knew security was inadequate, nobody did anything, and now

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eight pieces of French history are gone. But the thieves

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made mistakes, big mistakes, and those mistakes would bring them

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down in less than a week. We'll be right back

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with how DNA caught the thieves and why France's four

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point four million profile database is both a crime solving

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tool and a privacy nightmare. Welcome back to celebrity trials.

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I'm read Carter. The Louver heist shocked France, but what

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happened next shocked criminal justice experts around the world. October nineteenth,

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the heist October twenty fifth, two arrests. Six days later,

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October twenty ninth, five more arrests. Ten days after the

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heist November first, four suspects formally charged less than two

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weeks from crime to charges for a one hundred million

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dollar international heist at one of the world's most famous museums.

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That's not just fast, that's unprecedented. How did they do it? DNA?

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The thieves left behind a treasure trove of evidence, a

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motorcycle helmet with sweat inside gloves with skin cells. The

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lift truck they'd tried to burn had DNA on the

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bucket where they'd leaned or touched it. One of the

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scooters they'd abandoned had DNA on the handlebars. The broken

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glass from the display cases had DNA from cuts or scratches.

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The window frame had DNA where they'd climbed through. One

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hundred and fifty forensic samples total, all sent to public

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and certified private labs for sequencing, All compared against France's

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National Automated Genetic Fingerprint File. That's the official name, everyone

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just calls it the DNA database, started in nineteen ninety

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eight after a serial killer case. Today it contains four

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point four million DNA profiles. Let me paint you the

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picture of how this works. Police find DNA at a

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crime scene, saliva, sweat, hair, skin cells, blood, semen, any

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biological material. They collect it carefully, send it to a lab.

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The lab sequences the DNA, creates a genetic profile, basically

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a barcode unique to that individual, then sends that profile

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to be compared against the database. The database searches for

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exact matches. If the person whose DNA was found at

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the crime scene has ever been convicted of or even

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suspected of certain crimes, their DNA is in the system.

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In this case, the thieves had criminal records, mostly for theft,

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some for traffic violations. When they were arrested. Previously, police

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collected their DNA standard procedure in France put it in

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the database just in case. October nineteenth, the heist happens.

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Evidence collected October twentieth to twenty fourth labs sequence the DNA,

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compare it to the database October twenty fifth. Match found

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two names, two addresses, two targets. Police don't immediately arrest them.

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They watch them, follow them, track their movements, see who

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they contact, where they go, looking for accomplices, looking for

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the jewels. But they're forced to move early because one

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of them, a thirty four year old Algerian national living

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in France, books a one way flight to Algeria leaving

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October twenty fifth from Charles de Gaul Airport. Police scramble

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can't let him flee the country, coordinate with airport security,

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wait until he's at the gate about to board, then

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grab him. Arrested during passport control. One way ticket to

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Algeria in hand, clearly trying to disappear. Simultaneously, police arrest

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the second suspect, thirty nine year old French citizen, lives

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in Obevilliers, a suburb north of Paris in San San Denis,

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arrested at home, no warning, just police at the door.

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Both men are brought in for questioning, can be held

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for up to four days under French law. Both have lawyers.

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Both initially deny everything. Then police show them the evidence.

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Your DNA was on the scooter, your DNA was on

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the broken glass, your DNA was inside the glove, your

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DNA was on the lift bucket. We have you on

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security footage, we have you on witness accounts. Both men

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partially admit their involvement. That's the official language. They don't

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confess everything, but they acknowledge being there, being involved, just

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not willing to give full details yet. October twenty ninth,

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police arrest five more suspects raids across Paris and San

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Saint Denis, looking for accomplices for the other two members

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of the four man team, for anyone who helped plan

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or execute the heist. One of those arrested, a thirty

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seven year old man. His DNA is found on the

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mechanical lift bucket. He's believed to be one of the

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accomplices who waited on the s street with the scooters.

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One of the getaway drivers also arrested, his thirty eight

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year old girlfriend, charged with complicity being an accomplice helping

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plan or execute the crime. Both deny involvement, but the

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DNA doesn't lie. Three others arrested that day are released

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without charges. Not enough evidence, wrong people. Police are casting

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a wide net trying to find everyone involved. So here's

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the breakdown. Four people directly involved in the heist. Two

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climbed the lift and broke into the museum, two waited

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on the street with scooters. Three of those four are

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now in custody. Thirty four year old Algerian national former

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garbage collector and delivery driver DNA on the scooter, DNA

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on the glass was about to flee to Algeria. Thirty

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nine year old French citizen unlicensed taxi driver DNA on

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the lift, fifteen previous convictions, including ramming a car into

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an ATM to rob it, lives in Obervilliers. V seven

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year old French citizen DNA on the lift bucket. Eleven

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previous convictions ten for theft, committed a theft in twenty

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fifteen with a thirty nine year old. They know each other,

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also from Sencendinie. One member of the four man team

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is still at large. Police are hunting him, but three

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out of four isn't bad for less than two weeks.

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Also charged, the thirty seven year old's girlfriend thirty eight

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years old, mother of his children, allegedly helped plan the heist.

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Her DNA might be transferred DNA, meaning she touched something

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that touched the crime scene, not that she was there directly.

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Still charged as an accomplice denies everything. All four charged

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with theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy. If convicted,

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they're facing decades in prison. Paris prosecutor lor Bekuo held

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a press conference explained how they caught the thieves credited

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the DNA database, said explicitly, I am convinced that we

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would not have found these people if the DNA that

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was found at this theft hadn't matched with this database.

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That's a remarkable admission. Without the DNA database, these thieves

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might have gotten away with it. The security footage was limited,

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the getaway was clean. They disappeared into Paris but they

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couldn't escape their own biology. Gaietam Poitaven, a criminal lawyer

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who wrote his master's thesis on France's DNA database, told

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The New York Times, we would not have found these

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people without the database. But here's the question. Is that

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a good thing. France's DNA database started in nineteen ninety

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eight after a serial killer named Gui George, the Eastern

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Paris Killer, murdered seven women. He'd been arrested earlier for assault.

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Police collected his DNA, but France had no centralized database,

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so they couldn't match his DNA to the rape murder scenes.

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He was released, went on to kill two more women.

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Finally caught convicted, The case prompted creation of the National

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DNA Database. Initially, it only contained DNA of sexual offenders,

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but it expanded. Today it includes anyone convicted or even

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suspected of murder, terrorism, drug trafficking, assault, theft, property damage,

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and dozens of other crimes. You don't have to be convicted,

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just suspected, arrested, questioned, and your DNA goes into the

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database forever. The process of being removed is so difficult

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that almost nobody tries. Refused to give DNA at least

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a year in prison and a fifteen thousand euro fine

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about seventeen four hundred dollars, so almost everyone complies. From

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twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two, an average of six

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hundred eighty people per year were convicted of refusing to

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provide DNA, less than one percent of people charged. Criminal

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defense lawyer Pointivan says, among my clients, absolutely zero refuse

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because for them it's an admission of guilt. So the

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database keeps growing four point four million profiles at the

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end of last year, and French investigators can cross reference

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with thirty other European national databases, plus databases from the

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United States and other countries. It's incredibly effective. Cold cases

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get solved decades later. In twenty eleven, French police use

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the database to search for similar DNA profiles, not exact matches,

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but family members, and solved a nine year old murder

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by tracking down the killer's father. First. The Dominique Pellico case,

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the man who drugged his wife Giselle and invited dozens

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of men to rape her over a decade, was connected

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to an attempted rape from nineteen ninety nine through the

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DNA database that case had been called for twenty years

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until Pellicott was arrested in twenty twenty. Gave DNA and

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it matched the nineteen ninety nine crime scene samples. The

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database works, It solves crimes, It catches criminals, It delivers

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justice for victims, but at what cost. Privacy advocates are terrified.

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One person giving DNA to police essentially gives up the

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genetic privacy of their entire family, present and future, because

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familial DNA searching can connect relatives. Joelle ve Lee, a

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sociologist who studies DNA use in the French justice system,

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calls it genetic suspects. Your cousin commits a crime twenty

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years from now. Police find DNA at the scene, They

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search for similar profiles, find you in the database, use

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your DNA to track down your cousin. You've become a

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genetic suspect without doing anything wrong. France bans private consumer

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genetics companies like twenty three in meters or ancestry dot com.

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The practice of tracing ancestry is sensitive there. During World

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War II, Jewish ancestry records were used to send people

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to death camps, so France doesn't allow commercial DNA databases,

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But last month, Justice Minister Gerald d'armanin said he plans

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to introduce legislation allowing investigators to access foreign commercial DNA databases,

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mainly American ones, for serious unsolved crimes, exactly what France

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bans domestically they want to use internationally. Some lawyers call

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it hypocritical and dangerous. Vailey says it infringes on privacy rights.

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One person using a consumer service offers up the DNA

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of whole families to law enforcement. But here's the reality.

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It works. The Lover thieves were caught because they'd committed

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crimes before. Their DNA was in the database. When they

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left DNA at the heist, police matched it in hours,

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six days later, arrests two weeks later. Charges. Without that database,

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the thieves might still be free. The jewels might still

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be missing. Wait, the jewels are still missing, but at

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least the thieves are caught. Is the trade off worth it,

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sacrificing privacy for security, genetic surveillance for crime solving. That's

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not for me to decide, But I'll tell you this,

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the thieves in this case weren't criminal masterminds. They were

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petty criminals. From the suburbs. Small time thieves who somehow

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pulled off a one hundred million dollar heist, and they

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got caught because they were too stupid to wear gloves

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that didn't leak their DNA. Here's what shocked everyone about

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this case. The suspects aren't Ocean's eleven. They're not international

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art thieves. They're not sophisticated criminals with connections to organized crime.

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They're petty criminals, local thieves from San San Denis, one

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of the poorest suburbs north of Paris, high unemployment, high crime,

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the kind of place where people steal because that's how

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they survive. The thirty four year old Algerian national worked

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as a garbage collector and delivery driver. One previous conviction

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for theft, several traffic violations, small time offender, nothing that

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would suggest he's capable of planning and executing a one

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hundred million dollar museum heist. The thirty nine year old

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French citizen is an unlicensed taxi driver, also worked as

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a delivery driver. Fifteen previous convictions, two for theft. One

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of those thefts involved ramming a car into an ATM

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to rob it. That's his level of sophistication, ram and grab,

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not exactly Danny Ocean. The thirty seven year old man

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has eleven previous convictions, ten of them for theft. Prosecutor

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Bekwow said he and the thirty nine year old committed

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a theft together in twenty fifteen. They know each other,

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probably grew up in the same neighborhood, small time criminals

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running in the same circles. Prosecutor Bekwow told French radio.

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This is not quite everyday delinquency, but it is a

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type of delinquency that we do not generally associate with

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the upper echelons of organized crime. They are clearly local people.

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She found the profile surprising, but noted what we are

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seeing now is that people with no significant association with

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organized crime are progressing relatively quickly to committing extremely serious crimes. Translation,

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YouTube and the Internet taught small time thieves how to

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do big time heists. Think about it. Twenty years ago,

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you needed connections to pull off a museum heist, needed

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fences to sell the jewels, needed contacts with organized crime,

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needed international smuggling networks. You couldn't just wake up one

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day and decide to rob the louver. But today google

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how to cut through reinforced glass. Watch a few YouTube

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videos about power tools, find a truck rental company, buy

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some reflective vests and hard hats. Scout the location on

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Google Maps, plan your escape route on GPS. These guys

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weren't sophisticated. They were competent enough, and the louver's security

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was incompetent enough that it worked. But here's where their

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stupidity shows. The things they left behind. A helmet with

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DNA inside. Professional criminals wear disposable hairnets under helmets to

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avoid leaving DNA. Gloves with DNA on them. Professional criminals

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wear two pairs of gloves, dispose of the outer pair

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at the scene. The lift truck they tried to burn.

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Professional criminals use stolen vehicles they can actually destroy, not

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metal furniture lifts that won't catch fire. Scooters they abandoned

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a few blocks away with DNA on the handlebars. Professional

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criminals dump bikes into the sind or torch them immediately.

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A circular saw, an angle grinder, a gas can, a

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walkie talkie, a reflective vest. Professional criminals take their tools

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with them or destroy them and the crown they dropped

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in the street during their escape. Professional criminals don't drop

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two thousand diamond on the pavement because they cut the

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glass case opening too small, smart enough to plan the heist,

452
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:10.079
too stupid to clean up after themselves. The prosecutor said

453
00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:14.079
they partially admitted their involvement. That's French legal language for

454
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:17.200
they sang like canaries once we showed them the evidence,

455
00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:22.319
didn't give full confessions, didn't admit everything, but acknowledged being there,

456
00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:27.319
being involved, just trying to minimize their roles. The girlfriend,

457
00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:30.079
the thirty eight year old woman. Her lawyer said she's

458
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:33.599
devastated by the accusations. Claims she had nothing to do

459
00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:37.599
with it. Maybe true. Maybe she's just the unlucky partner

460
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:40.400
of a criminal who involved her without her knowledge. Or

461
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:44.720
maybe she helped planet DNA might be transferred DNA, or

462
00:31:44.759 --> 00:31:47.200
it might place her at the scene. But here's what

463
00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:50.279
we know for sure. Three of the four thieves are

464
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:55.440
in custody. They're not international art thieves, they're not sophisticated criminals.

465
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:58.960
They're local guys from the suburbs who got lucky because

466
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:02.119
the Louverris security was pathetic, and now they're going to

467
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:05.640
prison for decades for jewels they'll never get to enjoy.

468
00:32:06.160 --> 00:32:08.720
For a crime that was solved in six days because

469
00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:11.680
they were too dumb to clean up their DNA. Make

470
00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:18.799
it make sense. Eight pieces of jewelry worth one hundred

471
00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:23.920
million dollars more importantly worth centuries of French history, still

472
00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:27.920
missing three weeks after the heist. Here's what was taken.

473
00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:32.039
The sapphire perrour of Queen Marie Amelie and Queen Hortense.

474
00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:36.599
A tiara necklace and single earring. Blue sapphires surrounded by

475
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:42.519
diamonds nineteenth century, worn by French royalty at state occasions. Irreplaceable.

476
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:47.000
The Marie Louise necklace and matching earrings. This is the

477
00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:51.440
crown jewel of the Crown Jewels, gifted by Napoleon Bonaparte

478
00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:55.960
to his second wife, Empress Marie Louise in eighteen eleven.

479
00:32:56.440 --> 00:33:00.839
More than one thousand diamonds. Massive emerald, one of the

480
00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:05.440
most historically significant pieces in the collection. Napoleon giving jewelry

481
00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:09.640
to his Empress. That's French history in physical form. A

482
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:13.559
tiara and broach from Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon, the

483
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:17.960
third covered in diamonds, mid nineteenth century. Another piece of

484
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:23.680
imperial French history. Eight items total, thousands of individual diamonds, sapphires,

485
00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:28.640
and emeralds, all mounted in gold, all irreplaceable. The ninth

486
00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:31.480
item they tried to take, the crown of Empress Eugenie,

487
00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:35.759
was recovered, damaged but recoverable. Found in the street where

488
00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:39.519
they dropped it, more than two thousand diamonds, fifty six emeralds,

489
00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:42.960
eight gold eagles. They deformed it trying to force it

490
00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:46.680
through the glass case opening. Several small diamonds were missing.

491
00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:50.680
One gold eagle broken off, but the louver's art conservation

492
00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:53.960
team says it can be restored. Won't be in original condition,

493
00:33:54.039 --> 00:33:57.519
but close enough, still retains its symbolic value, but the

494
00:33:57.559 --> 00:34:02.839
other eight pieces gone. Prosecutor Becuau says she's still hopeful

495
00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:06.160
they can be recovered intact, that the thieves might realize

496
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:09.480
destroying them is pointless, that they'll try to use them

497
00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:13.280
as bargaining chips if caught. Robert Whitman, founder of the

498
00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:16.960
FBI's Art Crime Team, told reporters the thieves have good

499
00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:20.800
reason to preserve the jewels. In France and Europe, stolen

500
00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:23.000
art can be used as a get out of jail card,

501
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:27.039
return the stolen property get a reduced sentence, But if

502
00:34:27.079 --> 00:34:31.559
you've already destroyed. It no bargaining power, nothing to trade,

503
00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:37.519
but experts are skeptical. Christopher Marinello, CEO of Art Recovery International,

504
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:41.519
told ABC News. If the jewels are not recovered in

505
00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:44.760
the first forty eight hours, they are most likely broken

506
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:47.679
up into smaller jewels and gems and sold in the

507
00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:51.079
market place. Three weeks later, still no sign of them.

508
00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:55.079
That's not good. Here's what likely happened. The jewels were

509
00:34:55.079 --> 00:34:58.280
taken to a safe location immediately after the heist. Could

510
00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:01.559
be in Paris, could be in another country. France borders

511
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:05.480
eight countries, easy to smuggle across borders in Europe. Then

512
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:10.480
they're photographed, documented, offered quietly to black market buyers, collectors

513
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:13.239
who don't care about providence, who just want to own

514
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:15.960
a piece of history, who'll keep it in a private

515
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:20.159
safe and never show anyone, or more likely the pieces

516
00:35:20.159 --> 00:35:23.639
are being dismantled. A jeweler with no ethics takes the

517
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.920
Marie Louise necklace apart one thousand individual diamonds, each one

518
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:34.519
sold separately to different buyers. Emeralds, two sapphires from the perure,

519
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:41.000
all separated, all sold individually. The gold is melted down, reshaped,

520
00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:46.159
sold as raw gold, the historical settings destroyed. Within weeks,

521
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:50.280
the jewels effectively ceased to exist. They're transformed into hundreds

522
00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:56.079
of individual stones scattered across the black market, untraceable, unrecoverable.

523
00:35:56.679 --> 00:36:00.960
That's the nightmare scenario, and it's probably already happened. Interpol

524
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:03.920
added all eight pieces to its Stolen Works of Art

525
00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:08.599
database on October twentieth, the day after the heist, Alerts

526
00:36:08.599 --> 00:36:11.400
sent to law enforcement agencies in one hundred and ninety

527
00:36:11.440 --> 00:36:16.199
five countries. Customs officials watching for the pieces, art dealers

528
00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:20.400
and auction houses notified anyone trying to sell them legitimately

529
00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:23.639
will be caught. But the black market doesn't care about

530
00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:28.880
Interpol databases, doesn't care about provenance, doesn't care about history,

531
00:36:29.559 --> 00:36:35.559
just cares about money. Individual diamonds are virtually impossible to trace. Sure,

532
00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:40.239
there are large, famous diamonds with documented characteristics. The Regent

533
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:44.480
diamond has a specific cut, color, clarity. You can't just

534
00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:47.559
sell that at a pawnshop. But a one carit diamond

535
00:36:47.639 --> 00:36:50.400
that came from the Marie Luise necklace, that could be

536
00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:52.800
any diamond, No way to prove it came from the

537
00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:56.880
Louver heist. So the jewels are probably gone forever. Even

538
00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:00.280
if the thieves are caught, even if they confess, even

539
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:02.719
if they tell police what they did with the pieces,

540
00:37:03.079 --> 00:37:06.360
if they've already been dismantled and sold, there's no recovery.

541
00:37:06.920 --> 00:37:12.360
France has lost eight pieces of its national heritage, Napoleon's gifts, empresses,

542
00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:17.559
coronation jewels, symbols of French royal history, destroyed for profit.

543
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:21.360
And the three thieves in custody aren't talking, at least

544
00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:25.119
not about the jewels. They partially admitted involvement in the heist,

545
00:37:25.519 --> 00:37:28.719
but they're not saying where the jewels are, who has them,

546
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.679
what happened to them. The fourth thief still at large.

547
00:37:33.079 --> 00:37:36.679
He's probably the key. He has the jewels, or knows

548
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:39.639
where they are, or knows who has them, but police

549
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:43.960
haven't caught him yet. Prosecutor Bekwau says investigators are exploring

550
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:49.920
all leads, conducting searches, seizing evidence, examining new objects, but

551
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:55.000
three weeks later, still nothing. The jewels are gone, probably forever.

552
00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.519
France will never get them back, never see them displayed

553
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:02.000
in the Apollo gallery again, never let visitors marvel at

554
00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:06.039
Napoleon's gifts to his wives. That's the real loss, not

555
00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:10.159
the one hundred million dollars. That's just insurance money. The

556
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:14.199
real loss is the history, the heritage, the physical connection

557
00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:17.079
to France's past. You can't put a price on that.

558
00:38:17.800 --> 00:38:21.159
Someone has to say it. These jewels belonged to France,

559
00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:24.960
to the French people, to anyone who visited the Louver

560
00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:30.159
and marveled at them. And now they're gone, dismantled, destroyed,

561
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:34.199
scattered across the black market because the Louver couldn't be

562
00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:42.360
bothered to secure their perimeter. That's celebrity trials for Friday,

563
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:49.239
November seventh, twenty twenty five. October nineteenth, four thieves robbed

564
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:52.840
the Louver in broad daylight eight pieces of French Crown

565
00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:57.320
jewels worth one hundred million dollars four minutes inside the museum,

566
00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:01.480
eight minutes total from arrival to a scale left behind

567
00:39:01.559 --> 00:39:05.199
DNA on helmets, gloves, scooters, the lift bucket, broken glass.

568
00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:08.679
Smart enough to plan a museum heist, too stupid to

569
00:39:08.679 --> 00:39:13.760
clean up after themselves. October twenty fifth, two arrests DNA

570
00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:17.559
matched to France's four point four million profile database. Petty

571
00:39:17.559 --> 00:39:21.320
criminals from Sen Saint Denis one trying to flee to Algeria.

572
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:26.199
October twenty ninth, five more arrests, four suspects now charged,

573
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:30.039
three of the four thieves in custody, one still at large.

574
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:35.239
November seventh, jewels still missing, probably being dismantled as we speak.

575
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:41.039
Napoleon's emerald necklace broken into a thousand individual stones, empresses,

576
00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:45.440
tiaras destroyed for their raw materials. French heritage lost forever.

577
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:49.039
The real crime isn't the heist. The real crime is

578
00:39:49.079 --> 00:39:52.760
the louvers. Twenty years of security failures. Only a third

579
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:56.559
of the museum under video. Surveillance camera on the Apollo

580
00:39:56.639 --> 00:40:00.800
Gallery pointed the wrong direction, no barriers prevent vehicles from

581
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:04.440
parking next to the building, no perimeter security worth mentioning,

582
00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:10.280
chronic structural underestimation of the risk. According to the official

583
00:40:10.360 --> 00:40:16.920
report translation, everyone knew this could happen, nobody did anything,

584
00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:21.559
and now eight pieces of French history are gone. Your

585
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:25.119
tax dollars at work, or in this case, French tax euros.

586
00:40:25.719 --> 00:40:29.599
Same principle, institutional failure at the highest level, the most

587
00:40:29.719 --> 00:40:32.519
visited museum in the world, and they couldn't protect the

588
00:40:32.519 --> 00:40:35.000
Crown Jewels from four guys with a furniture lift and

589
00:40:35.039 --> 00:40:38.360
some power tools make it make sense. The thieves will

590
00:40:38.360 --> 00:40:41.880
go to prison, probably for decades, but the jewels will

591
00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:44.559
never come back. France has lost a piece of its

592
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:46.960
soul and the only people who will ever see the

593
00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:50.320
Marie Luise necklace again are black market buyers who'll keep

594
00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:53.440
it hidden in a safe rest in peace to France's crown.

595
00:40:53.519 --> 00:40:58.880
Jewels survived the French Revolution, survived two World Wars, survived

596
00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:03.039
two centuries of him. Couldn't survive the louvers in competence.

597
00:41:04.039 --> 00:41:07.320
I'm reed, Carter, have a good weekend, lock your doors

598
00:41:07.800 --> 00:41:11.559
and maybe don't trust the museum security at major cultural institutions.

599
00:41:11.880 --> 00:41:22.440
This is celebrity trials.