Did you hear about the Louvre jewel heist on the morning of Sunday, October 19, 2025? Thieves reportedly stole €88 million ($102 million) worth of jewels from the Apollo Gallery, including an emerald necklace and earrings.
In 2018, when I saw the necklace and earrings at the Louvre, the following thought crossed my mind: “Emerald is my birthstone. I want to take these home with me!”
Seems like other people had the same thought – only they actually took ‘em! Who could blame them? The emerald and diamond necklace and earrings are absolutely beautiful.
At the end of March 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte gave the complete set to his second wife, Marie-Louise, as a wedding gift. The set included a tiara, a comb, a necklace, and a pair of earrings.
According to the Louvre Museum’s website, the necklace is made up of 32 emeralds including 10 pear-shaped, and 1,138 diamonds (874 brilliant cut and 264 rose cut). Diamonds encircle large emeralds (alternating oval or lozenge-shaped), which are connected by palmettes setting a small round emerald. From each of the large emeralds hangs a pear-shaped emerald encircled by diamonds. The central emerald (13.75 metric carats) is oval in shape and is cut with eight sides.
But I have so many questions!
- First of all, didn’t security find it at all suspicious when the thieves started climbing a cherry picker up to a window of the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre?
- How can power saws and other tools be brought into the museum undetected?
- Could the thieves possibly be caught using DNA from the gloves they reportedly left or from fingerprints on the crown they dropped in their haste?
I’m usually not so cynical, but it smells like an inside job. Could it be this news story is simply something used to “steal” our collective attention away from something more egregious? (Well, I can think of a few fires ablaze in the world, but I won’t go there…)
I’m glad I got to see these stunning jewels at the Louvre. I hope they’ll be recovered intact. When they are, maybe they will become “the most famous emeralds in the world” and gain the same notoriety as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which became internationally famous after it was stolen in 1911 then returned to the Louvre in 1914.
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There was a great article on the heist in the NYT the other day, which I shared in a recent post on the same topic. Sadly, I doubt this was done out of love for beauty or anything so romantic. These guys were pros, and they knew perfectly well that the security was focused on the main entrance, that Sunday morning was a quiet time and those furniture ladders are all too common on Paris streets. I do hope they get caught though. Those jewels are a priceless piece of French history.
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Thank you for letting me know about your post and the NYT article you linked to. As of today (Oct 26), I read in NYT that arrests have reportedly been made (a week later!) This is a story that I’m following and I agree that if the jewels weren’t recovered, it would be unfortunate since they’re one-of-a-kind Joyaux de la Couronne de France !
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This heist was a surprise to me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if producers are already lining up to propose a Netflix series or film about this very soon! I agree with you that perhaps this was an inside job, because unless French security is that crap, how could the thieves have easily broken in, especially during waking hours? Very fascinating stuff, indeed. Thanks for sharing, Darlene– perhaps as the news unfold, more information about the thieves and motive will be brought to light!
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This news story has certainly captured my attention and just today (Oct 26) I’ve read in NYT that arrests have been made. The zinger at the end of the article supports my belief that’s it’s an inside job (maybe) to justify the French president’s renovation plan (announced earlier this year) that includes a security overhaul of the Louvre!
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