This is the moment the brazen robbers who stole priceless jewellery worth an estimated £76million from the Louvre escaped down a ladder before fleeing on scooters.
The video, shared to social media, shows two thieves coming down a large ladder by the famous museum in the heart of Paris.
One was wearing a hi-vis jacket, the other appeared to be in an all-black get-up.
At least one other person was seen at the bottom of the ladder. The men are not threatened by anybody as security guards express their intense frustration.
‘The individuals are on scooters – they are about to leave,’ says one, as police sirens can be heard in the background.
‘Blast! Try the police. They’ve gone!,’ can also be heard, along with swear words.
Though the investigation into the major theft is ongoing, some details of their escape have begun to emerge.
At 9.30am on October 19, the four thieves targeted the under-construction wing of the 232-year-old museum.
Once their getaway drivers pulled up on scooters, the men began their seven-minute raid – propping their ladder up against the museum’s wall, scurrying to the top and using an angle grinder to pierce through the window.
They also managed to evade the camera that monitored the room that was pointing completely in the wrong direction.
The video, shared to social media, shows two thieves coming down a large ladder by the famous museum in the heart of Paris
‘The individuals are on scooters – they are about to leave,’ says one security guard, as police sirens can be heard in the background
Inside, they threatened unarmed guards and visitors before breaking into two display cabinets and looting nine prized items, estimated to be worth up to £76million.
The two robbers then fled via the same window, climbing down the ladder and then hopping onto the back of their accomplices’ scooters below.
It comes after the museum’s director admitted that security cameras did not cover the window thieves used to break-in and steal uninsured jewellery.
Speaking for the first time since last Sunday’s heist at the world’s most popular art museum, Laurence des Cars, 59, offered her resignation for the embarrassing failure which allowed the four masked raiders inside the Paris landmark.
She said: ‘The only camera installed is directed westward and therefore did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in. There are some perimeter cameras, but they are ageing.
‘Despite our efforts, despite our hard work every day, we were defeated. We did not detect the thieves’ arrival early enough.’
Ms Des Cars was grilled by senators on Wednesday, and they particularly wanted to know how a flatbed truck with an extendible ladder had been able to park in the wrong direction on the pavement directly outside the Louvre.
One of the suspected thieves was filmed as the group raided priceless jewellery that once belonged to Napoleon and his family
Investigators are seen gathering evidence left behind by the thieves, including the grinders used to force their way into the museum
It made a U-turn on a three-lane one-way street by the Seine, and was used by the gang to get up to the first floor of the museum.
They spent just seven minutes carrying out the raid, which included breaking open two cabinets containing eight pieces of Napoleonic jewellery described as ‘France’s crown jewels’.
The pieces were not insured because of the massive cost of premiums, Ms Des Cars explained.
Ms Des Cars said the thieves had put bollards on the pavement, and wore hi viz yellow and orange jackets and balaclavas during the 9.20am heist.
‘As soon as they broke a window and entered the museum, the alarm systems went off and the security protocol was followed,’ she said.
Private security guards who heard the alerts on their radio system ran to the van and managed to prevent the robbers setting fire to it before they fled.
This helped save valuable evidence, included a glovesand a helmet, as well as the vehicle itself, but the men disappeared on two Yamaha motorbikes.
Ms De Cars said she had handed her resignation in to Rachida Dati, the Culture Minister, but it was refused.
The thieves were unable to burn the truck they used in the caper, potentially leaving behind crucial traces of DNA
Investigators have been casing the crime scene for DNA
She said ‘security plans’ had included ‘video surveillance covering all facades’ and ‘the installation of fixed thermal cameras’ but these plans had not been implemented in time.
This was because they required extensive work on the electricity supply, including 40 miles worth of new cables.
Ms Des Cars said she had repeatedly warned that the centuries-old building’s security was in a dire state, saying: ‘The warnings I had been sounding came horribly true last Sunday.’
She pledged to set up no-parking perimeters around the Louvre, upgrade the CCTV network, and ask the Interior Ministry to set up a police station inside the museum.
The raid happened between 9.20am and 9.27am before management chose to shut the Louvre down for three days.
Detectives then joined senior politicians in examining the crime scene.
A report by France’s auditing watchdog – the Cours des Comptes – meanwhile revealed ‘consistent and persistent delays’ in bringing security up to date in the world’s most visited art museum.
Despite an annual operating budget of £280million (€323million), a third of rooms in the Louvre’s Denton Wing – where the burglary took place – had no cameras at all.
Thieves also got away with an emerald necklace, pictured, from the Marie-Louise set made by master jeweller François-Régnault Nitot in 1810
The gang also took a sapphire jewellery set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense. It was made in Paris between 1800 and 1835
A blurry image showing one of the raiders breaking into a cabinet has emerged, but it is by no means clear enough to identify him.
There were five security guards on duty at the Apollo Gallery but all of them ran away after being threatened with angle-grinders and chainsaws.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nine pieces were stolen in all, with two recovered soon afterwards after being dropped and damaged.
He said two thieves arrived on Yamaha Tmax scooters, while two othes were waiting on the back of the flatbed truck.
They the used the ladder to get up to a window close to the Apollo Gallery.
Beyond Eugénie’s Crown, items stolen included another crown, earrings and a brooch.
The Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police is leading the enquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.
The most infamous theft at the Louvre came in 1911 when Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th Century Mona Lisa was taken, causing an international outcry.
Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the world’s most visited art museum, hid in a cupboard overnight to take the painting.
French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum in Paris, on October 19, 2025
Empress Eugenie’s tiara (pictured), created by Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier in 1853, was stolen
It was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.
The latest raid comes despite the authorities regularly pledging to improve security at the numerous galleries across Paris.
Axe-wielding thieves targeted an exhibition of miniature objects at the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris on November 20, 2024.
Among their haul were seven highly prized snuffboxes, including two loaned by the British Crown.
The daytime raid led to an insurance payout of more than £3 million to the Royal Collection Trust.
In 2017, three art thieves were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for stealing five masterpieces worth almost £100million from the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
The burglary in May 2010 saw works by Picasso and Matisse disappearing.
The latest Louvre theft was reminiscent of the opening scene of Lupin, the Netflix series about Arsène Lupin, a fictional ‘gentleman thief’.
The Louvre welcomed nearly 9 million visitors in 2024, 80% of whom were foreigners, including hundreds of thousands of people from the UK.
Those stealing historical art pieces are often working to the orders of dealers who will be unable to sell on the black market.
Instead, the jewellery will be kept hidden, and enjoyed by the master criminal who commissioned the raid.
