Free Republic

Two men who allegedly stole $100 million worth of France’s crown jewels during a daring daytime heist at the Louvre Museum were arrested on Saturday night — as one suspect was captured trying to flee the country. One of the suspects, who has not been identified, was busted as he was boarding a flight bound for Algeria at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris newspaper Le Parisien reported. The men, from Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris, were detained by police as part of the investigation of “organized gang robbery” and “conspiracy to commit a crime.” Police were tipped off on...

PARIS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Suspects have been arrested over the brazen jewellery heist at the Louvre, just as one of them was about to fly out of France, the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday.

Europe’s inability and unwillingness to protect its incorporeal cultural cornerstones has now extended to its tangible cultural icons.I write from a quiet, mountainous part of Central Europe. The scenery is idyllic, and the fall air is crisp. But much as the case has been in my other recent trips to the European continent, the sights I see and the conversations I hear are all underscored by a similar haunting concern: Will there even be a Europe, in any cognizable sense of the term, a century from now?All across the continent, fertility rates have plummeted, and the Christianity that defined the...

Is he even real? The internet had many questions after a photo began to circulate.It was, in nearly every way, an ordinary photo distributed by The Associated Press to news media outlets. It showed three policemen leaning against a silver car parked in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum in Paris just hours after the brazen theft of a collection of French crown jewels on Sunday.But then there was the dapper man standing jauntily on the right side of the photo.The officers, the A.P. caption said, were there to block the entrance to the museum. But the man, dressed in...

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 Tuesday. The theft — by what the museum's director at the time said was an "extremely professional team" — took place on Sept. 16, a little over a month before an audacious jewelry heist at the world-famous Louvre museum on Sunday. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on Sept. 30 over the Natural History Museum break-in and theft of gold worth more than $1...

PARIS — Following Sunday's theft of artifacts valued at $102 million, the Louvre updated its security system to include a second generation indoor Ring camera. "It automatically records when it detects motion and I can access all the footage from the app. It's a huge step forward for our security," said Louvre President-Director Gerard des Carre. "It's so cool." At the time of the theft, the Louvre had relied on an old lock from the 1700s and a French bulldog named Terry for security. Sadly, it didn't have a Ring camera, which experts believe would have prevented the theft...

The Louvre failed to spot a gang of thieves early enough to stop the theft of €88m (£76m) worth of French crown jewels, the museum's director has revealed. Laurence des Cars, speaking publicly for the first time since the heist on Sunday, told French senators that CCTV around the Louvre's perimeter was weak and "aging". The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said. "We failed these jewels," she said, adding that no-one was protected from...

History has been made! Over the weekend, a crew of thieves rolled up to the famous Paris museum IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, used a crane to get inside, used chainsaws to cut through protective cases, and stole nine priceless treasures. One, the gold crown of Empress Eugénie seen in the video below, was discarded and found later by police. To make matters worse, it's not even the only heist from a major Paris museum that's made headlines this week. A Chinese woman has been charged with stealing gold nuggets on September 16th from the city's National Museum of Natural History. That...

One of Europe’s crown jewels, a centuries-old relic of irreplaceable artistic and historical import, has fallen into the hands of vandals intent on abusing it for their own selfish gain. I’m not talking about the heist at the Louvre over the weekend, in which thieves broke into the most famous art museum in the world and stole nine items from a collection of priceless treasures that once belonged to French royals of no less significance than Napoleon Bonaparte. I’m talking about the plunder of Canterbury Cathedral, in which a church founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury and famed as the...

It took only a few minutes for thieves to execute a brazen daylight heist at the famed Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday morning, coming away with jewels of “inestimable value” that had once belonged to Napoleon and his empresses.The Louvre, which is the world's most visited museum with 8.7 million visitors in 2024 alone, was closed for the day as police investigated how the robbers were able to carry out the most high-profile theft in modern French history."The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our History," President Emmanuel...

The blame game and finger pointing following Sunday’s heist at the Louvre Museum kicked off almost as quickly as the seven-minute robbery itself. France’s far right was quick to assign fault to President Emmanuel Macron and his allies for the brazen, broad-daylight theft of the French crown jewels, accusing them of being soft on crime and failing to sufficiently protect the nation’s heritage. MEP Marion Maréchal proposed eliminating the €200 cultural vouchers offered to French high school students, a measure put in place under Macron, and redirecting those funds toward protecting France’s “national treasures.” She later called France the “laughingstock...

Authorities say the Empress Eugénie Brooch was among the stolen itemsIt is the most spectacular robbery at the Louvre museum since the Mona Lisa disappeared in 1911.And it poses serious questions about levels of security covering French artworks, at a time when they are increasingly being targeted by criminal gangs.According to France's new interior minister Laurent Nuñez, the gang that broke into the Apollo Gallery on Sunday morning was clearly professional.They knew what they wanted, had evidently "cased the joint" in advance, had a brazenly simple but effective modus operandi, and needed no more than seven minutes to take their...

The robbers reached a first-floor window and cut through glass panes to gain access to the museum's gilded Galerie d'ApollonThe Louvre Museum in Paris has been forced to close while police investigate a brazen heist which reportedly targeted France's priceless crown jewels. Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight, before escaping on scooters with items said to be of "incalculable" value. Here is what we know about the crime which has stunned France.How did the theft unfold?The theft occurred on Sunday between 09:30 and 09:40 local time, shortly after the museum opened to...

The broad-daylight heist, which was pulled off in just seven minutes, happened 800m from Paris police headquarters.Robbers wielding power tools scaled a furniture hoist outside the Louvre to make off with priceless jewellery from the world-renowned museum on Sunday (Oct 19), taking just seven minutes for the brazen, broad-daylight heist, sources and officials said. The criminals struck at about 9.30am local time when the museum had already opened its doors to the public. They entered the Gallerie d'Apollon (Apollo's Gallery) building, which is home to the French Crown Jewels, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It did not say...

Thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris and stole priceless jewelry before escaping on motorbikes, French officials said Sunday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called the heist a "major robbery" that "lasted seven minutes." Speaking to France Inter, he said the thieves "entered from the outside using a basket lift" and "a disc cutter" to slice through glass panes containing precious jewels. "The investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled," the ministry said in a statement. "Beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value." The museum posted on X...

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 26 — An ambitious terrorist plot to attack a host of American interests overseas was foiled by the capture of a key Osama bin Laden operative, sources tell ABCNEWS. Intelligence sources in Europe and the United States say the intended targets included the American embassy in Paris, the U.S. consulate in Marseilles, France, buildings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France. The outlines of the plan were known to French and American authorities before Sept. 11, but the attacks were not ...

The South African Ambassador to France has died after falling from the 22nd floor of a Paris hotel, French media reported today (Tuesday). Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa's body was found near the Hyatt Hotel at Porte Maillot. The prosecutor's office stated that Mthethwa had booked a room on the hotel's 22nd floor and that the room's secure window was forced open. The case is currently being investigated as a suicide. Mthethwa's wife reported him missing after receiving what the prosecutor's office called a "disturbing message" from him. .....

Earlier this month, an ancient Egyptian bracelet was stolen from a restoration lab in Cairo's Egyptian Museum. Dating back 3,000 years, the gold artifact had belonged to Amenemope, a pharaoh who ruled during Egypt's Third Intermediate Period.Now, investigators have discovered the artifact's whereabouts: They say a museum employee stole the bracelet and sold it for less than $4,000. The buyer melted it down...Museum staffers discovered the bracelet was missing when they were itemizing artifacts for shipment abroad last week, reports the London Times' Magdy Samaan... the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities... found that the artifact had passed from a museum...

Rob Sand is a gun-toting Christian from rural Iowa who goes deer hunting, drives a white Ford F-150 pickup, and opens speeches by quoting the Bible. He is also a rising Democratic star whose run for governor is spooking Republicans in the ruby red state. The father of two, 43, is the only Democrat to currently hold statewide office in Iowa and could hold the recipe for winning over voters in pro-Trump states.

The Musée Guimet, a Paris museum known for its rich collection of Asian art, is facing a lawsuit from several groups who accused the institution of trying to “erase the existence of Tibet.” According to the Agence France-Presse, which first reported news of the complaint last week, the suit centers around a gallery devoted to art from Nepal and Tibet. The museum now notes that the gallery focuses on the “Himalayan world,” not Nepal and Tibet specifically, according to the AFP. Doing so, the groups said, could create “confusion about Tibet’s cultural distinctiveness with the political aim of erasing Tibet’s...