Royal jewels stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris in a brazen daylight robbery over the weekend have been valued at more than $100m (some 88 million euros), a French prosecutor said.
“It is important to remember that this damage is an economic damage, but it is nothing compared to the historical damage caused by this theft,” Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in an interview.
“The Louvre curator estimated the damages to be 88 million euros,” Beccuau said. That works out to $102m.
The eight items of stolen jewellery included a tiara and earrings from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, of the early 19th century. The crown of Empress Eugenie was found outside the museum, apparently dropped by the thieves during their getaway.
The daring heist involved four masked thieves using a crane to smash an upstairs window at the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre, home to France’s remaining crown jewels, and make off with jewellery during a daylight robbery that took just seven minutes and involved a getaway on motorcycles.
