4 h. ago Louvre heist jewels valued at over US$100 million, as director faces grilling

The jewellery stolen from the Louvre in Paris was valued at more than US$100 million, a French prosecutor said Tuesday, as the museum’s director faces security questions from a Senate committee over the brazen weekend heist. The director, Laurence des Cars, has not made any public statement since thieves made off with royal jewels during a daylight robbery on Sunday that took just seven minutes. The Louvre is expected to re-open on Wednesday following two days of shut doors for the investigation...

Economics

14 h. ago Chinese woman charged in Paris gold theft from Natural History Museum

A Chinese woman has been arrested and charged over the theft of gold from the Natural History Museum in Paris, in one of several recent high-profile break-ins targeting French cultural institutions, a prosecutor said on Tuesday. The theft – by what the museum’s director at the time said was an “extremely professional team” – took place on September 16, about a month before an audacious jewellery heist at the world-famous Louvre Museum on Sunday. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in...

Culture

20 h. ago Louvre jewels may be irrecoverable as French police race against time

Crime gangs around Europe were increasingly robbing valuable jewels and gold from cash-needy museums like the Louvre, but while law enforcement often caught thieves, they struggled to recover the priceless goods, police and art experts have said. Only a small pool of criminals would be capable of such a job as Sunday’s audacious robbery in Paris and may already be known to police, the specialists said. But the objects themselves could be quickly broken down into component parts and sold on. “If...

Events

56 h. ago Thieves steal priceless French crown jewels from Louvre museum in Paris

Thieves wielding power tools robbed the Louvre in broad daylight on Sunday, taking just seven minutes to grab some of France’s priceless crown jewels, but dropping a gem-encrusted crown as they fled, officials and sources said. Authorities recovered the 19th-century crown – damaged – near the museum, but the culprits were still at large and the target of a manhunt. The spectacular robbery, one of several to target French museums in recent months, forced the closure for the rest of the day of the...

Events

56 h. ago Thieves steal crown jewels from France’s Louvre in daring minutes

Thieves raided Paris’ Louvre museum in broad daylight Sunday, taking just seven minutes to grab some of France’s priceless crown jewels, but dropping a gem-encrusted crown as they fled, officials and sources said. The spectacular heist, one of several to target French museums in recent months, forced the closure of the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and home to the Mona Lisa. President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media that “everything is being done” to catch the perpetrators and...

Events

56 h. ago France hunts thieves who stole crown jewels from Louvre in daring minutes

The hunt was on Monday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that Sunday’s raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group. In France, it reignited a row over the lack of security in France’s museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nunez acknowledged was a “major weak spot”. The thieves arrived between 9.30am...

Politics

2 w. ago Controversy overshadows policy in race to be Japan’s next PM

The race to see who will head Japan’s ruling party – which will also determine the country’s next prime minister – has veered off course, with one contender mired in a scandal over orchestrated online praise and another facing accusations of xenophobia over remarks about foreigners kicking sacred deer. The internal election for leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), scheduled for Saturday, has quickly crystallised into a two-way battle between Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, a...

Events