5 more arrests made in Louvre jewel heist
[October 30, 2025]
By ANGELA CHARLTON
PARIS (AP) — Five more people have been arrested in the investigation
into the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, but the treasures
remain missing, the Paris prosecutor announced Thursday.
The five were detained late Wednesday night in separate police
operations in Paris and surrounding areas, including the
Seine-Saint-Denis region, Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL radio. She
did not release their identities or other details.
One is suspected of being part of the four-person team that robbed the
Louvre's Apollo Gallery in broad daylight Oct. 19, the prosecutor said.
Two other members of the team were arrested Sunday and given preliminary
charges Wednesday of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an
organized gang. Both partially admitted their involvement, according to
the prosecutor.
“Searches last night and overnight did not allow us to find the goods,”
Beccuau said.
It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88
million euros ($102 million), shocking the world. The robbers forced
open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight
pieces of the French crown jewels.
One of those who has been charged is a 34-year-old Algerian national who
has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at
Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no
return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers,
and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was
found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she
said.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. The
man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one
of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the
thieves left behind, she added.
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Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau speaks during a news conference at
the Paris courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, on the judicial
investigation into the jewels robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris,
France. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals
involved, Beccuau said.
The four suspected robbers arrived onboard a truck equipped with a
freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum’s
window. The four of them left onboard two motor scooters along the
Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles
parked, she detailed.
Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices
within the museum’s staff.
She made a plea Wednesday night to those who have the jewels: “These
jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would
be guilty of concealment of stolen goods. There’s still time to give
them back.”
French police have acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses
— turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over
how France protects its treasures.
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