PARIS– He robbery at the Louvre has done what no marketing campaign ever could: it has catapulted France’s dusty Crown Jewels, long admired at home, little known abroad, to global fame.
A week later, the country is still hurt by the violation of its national heritage.
Still the crime It is also a paradox. Some say he will turn the very jewels he tried to erase into celebrities, in the same way that the theft of the Mona Lisa in the early 20th century transformed the then little-known Renaissance portrait into the most famous work of art in the world.
In 1911, a museum maintenance staff took down Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. The loss went unnoticed for more than a day; The newspapers turned it into a global mystery and crowds came to look at the empty space. When the painting resurfaced two years later, its fame eclipsed everything else in the museum, and remains so today.
That’s all the disturbing question Following Sunday’s robbery: whether a crime so profound will glorify what is left behind.
“Because of the drama, the scandal, the heist, the Apollo Gallery itself and the remaining jewels will probably receive new attention and become celebrities, just like the Mona Lisa after 1911,” said Anya Firestone, a Paris art historian and heritage expert authorized by the Ministry of Culture. He toured the gallery the day before the robbery and thought it was not sufficiently guarded.
The heist has electrified the global media. Evening news broadcasts from the U.S. to Europe and across Latin America and Asia have showcased the Louvre, its Apollo Gallery and the lost jewels to hundreds of millions — a surge of attention that some say rivals, or even surpasses, the frenzy after Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 2018 “Apeshit” video filmed inside the museum. The Louvre is once again a global setting.
For generations, the insignia of the british monarchy It has captured the popular imagination through centuries of coronations and has attracted millions each year to its display at the Tower of London. Meanwhile, the jewels of France lived in the shadows. This week’s one is called Tip the Scales.
One of the first emblems of that celebrity effect could be the surviving piece itself: Empress Eugenie’s emerald-set crown, dropped in the escapade and studded with more than 1,300 diamonds, which may now become the most talked-about relic in the gallery.
“I had never heard of Eugénie’s crown until now,” said Mateo Ruiz, a 27-year-old visitor from Seville. “Now it’s the first thing I want to see when the gallery reopens.”
Among the treasures that escaped the clutches of thieves were historic gems that still sparkle under glass: the Regent Diamond, the Sancy and the Hortensia. Authorities say another stolen jewel, in addition to Empress Eugenie’s damaged crown, has since been quietly recovered, although they have refused to identify it.
The robbery has not affected the attraction of the Louvre. the palace museum reopened to maximum crowds on Wednesdayeven when the jewels are still missing and the thieves are at large. Long before the robbery, the museum was Striving for mass tourism. (approximately 33,000 visitors per day) and staff warned that it could not easily absorb another increase, especially with the Apollo Gallery sealed and security resources stretched to the limit.
For France, the loss exceeds 100 million dollars in precious stones and metals; They are pages torn from the national record. The Apollo Gallery reads like a timeline in gold and light, taking the country from the Bourbon ceremony to Napoleon’s empire and modern France.
Firestone puts it this way: The jewels are “the Louvre’s last word in the language of monarchy: a brilliant echo of kings and queens as France crossed into a new era.” They are not decorations, he argues, but chapters of French history, marking the end of the royal order and the beginning of the country that France is today.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called the theft an “immeasurable” heritage loss, and the museum says the pieces have “inestimable” historical weight, a reminder that what disappeared is not just monetary.
Many also see a surprising security flaw.
“It’s amazing that they couldn’t arrest a handful of people in broad daylight,” said Nadia Benyamina, 52, a Parisian dealer who visits the gallery monthly. “There were failures, some avoidable. That’s the wound.”
Investigators say the thieves rode a basket lift up the building’s Seine-facing facade, forced open a window, smashed two display cases and fled on motorcycles, all within minutes. Alarms sounded, drawing security to the gallery and forcing the intruders to flee, officials say. The loot encompassed royal and imperial suites in sapphire, emerald and diamonds, including pieces linked to Marie Amélie, Hortense, Marie Louise and the Empress Eugenie.
In Senate testimony, Louvre director Laurence des Cars acknowledged “a terrible failure,” citing gaps in exterior camera coverage and proposing vehicle barriers and a police post inside the museum. She offered to resign; The Minister of Culture refused. The holdup came after months of warnings about chronic staff shortages and crowd pressure points.
Behind the locked doors, visitors now come to see what cannot be seen.
“I came to see where it happened,” said Tobias Klein, 24, an architecture student. “That barricade is chilling. People look with surprise and curiosity.”
Others feel a glimmer of hope. “They are ghosts now, but there is still hope that they will be found,” said Rose Nguyen, 33, an artist from Reims. “It’s the same strange magnetism that the Mona Lisa had after 1911. The story becomes part of the object.”
The curators warned that cutting or melting the jewelry would be a second violence. In museums, authenticity lives in the original: the setting, the design, the work of the goldsmith’s hand, and the unbroken story of who made, used, treasured, displayed, and, yes, stole the object.
The worrying future of the Louvre is whether the loss will now bring legend.
“In the strange economy of fame, even bad news turns into attention, and attention creates icons,” Firestone said.