PARIS: Crime gangs around Europe are increasingly robbing valuable jewels and gold from cash-needy museums like the Louvre, but while police often catch the thieves, they struggle to recover the priceless goods, law enforcement and art experts say.
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 say. But the objects themselves could be quickly broken down into component parts and sold on.
“If I steal a Van Gogh, it’s a Van Gogh. I can’t dispose of it through any other channel than an illicit art market,” said Marc Balcells, a Barcelona-based expert in crimes against cultural heritage. “But when I am stealing ... jewelry, I can move it through an illicit market as precious stones.”
The brazen heist of crown jewels from the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, has been decried by some as a national humiliation and sparked security checks across France’s multitude of cultural sites.
“If you target the Louvre, the most important museum in the world, and then get away with the French crown jewels, something was wrong with security,” said art investigator Arthur Brand.
Officials at the Louvre, home to artworks such as the Mona Lisa, had in fact already sounded the alarm about lack of investment.
And at least four French museums have been robbed in the last two months, according to media reports.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said they had charged a Chinese-born woman for the theft of six gold nuggets worth about €1.5 million ($1.75 million) from Paris’s Museum of Natural History last month. She was arrested in Barcelona trying to dispose of some melted gold, they said.
Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, which tracks stolen art, said museum heists were on the rise across Europe and further afield.
He cited cases in the Netherlands, France, Egypt.
“If you have jewels or gold in your collections, you need to be worried,” Marinello said.
Whodunnit?
Paris prosecutors have entrusted the investigation to a specialized Paris police unit known as the BRB, which is used to dealing with high-profile robberies.
Former police officer Pascal Szkudlara, who served in the unit, said the BRB handled the 2016 Kim Kardashian probe, when Paris thieves stole her $4 million engagement ring, as well as a recent spate of kidnappings of wealthy crypto bosses.
He said the BRB has about 100 agents, with over a dozen specialized in museum thefts. Investigators will look at video footage, telephone records, and forensic evidence, while informants will also be activated.
“They can have teams working on it 24/7 and for a long period,” Szkudlara said, expressing “100 percent” confidence the thieves would be caught.
Police will be poring over security footage going back weeks, looking to identify suspicious people casing out the joint, Brand said.
Corinne Chartrelle, who previously worked at the French Police’s Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property, said the jewels could feasibly end up in a global diamond center like Antwerp where there “are probably people who aren’t too concerned about the origin of the items.”
The diamonds could also be cut into smaller stones and the gold melted down, leaving buyers unaware of their provenance.
If the thieves feel the net closing, they could chuck or destroy the loot altogether.
Police are clearly in a race against time.
“Once they’ve been cut into smaller jewels, the deed is done. It’s over. We’ll never see these pieces again intact,” said Marinello. “It’s a very small percentage, recovering stolen artworks. When it comes to jewelry, that percentage is even less.”
Any theory about the objects being ordered up by a mysterious buyer was laughable, said Brand. “That’s unheard of,” he said. “You only see it in Hollywood movies.”
Cultural authorities across Europe will be looking at how to better secure museums at a time of tight public finances.
Brand said it was impossible to properly safeguard a museum, so the best thing was to slow down the time it takes to steal objects and escape, giving police longer to respond by making windows or display cases thicker, or adding more doors.
“They know they have only five, six minutes to get away with it because after six minutes, the police show up. So if they go into a museum ... and they find out that it takes more than six, seven, eight minutes, they will not do it,” he said.
Finland’s National Gallery Director General Kimmo Leva said financial realities meant tough decisions.
“A tightening everyday economy is, naturally, not the best basis for making the investments needed to mitigate potential threats,” Leva said.
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French police may nab Louvre thieves but unlikely to recover their loot
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French police may nab Louvre thieves but unlikely to recover their loot
- Manhunt underway for perpetrators of Louvre heist
- Museum thefts on the rise in France and around Europe
Pam Bondi clashes with Democrats in defense of Trump over Epstein files
- Repeatedly shouts at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican president’s chief protector
- US Attorney General aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners
WASHINGTON: Attorney General Pam Bondi launched into a passionate defense of Donald Trump on Wednesday as she tried to turn the page from relentless criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly shouting at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican president’s chief protector.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not going to put up with it.”
With victims of Epstein seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi forcefully defended the department’s handling of the files related to the well-connected financier, an issue that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump’s successes, even though it was Republicans who initiated the furor over the records and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers at the White House last year.
The hearing quickly devolved into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats while insisting she was not “going to get in the gutter” with them. In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Aiming to help Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to keep the focus on bread-and-butter law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly gleaned from news headlines as she sought to cast them as disinterested in violence in their districts. Democrats grew exasperated as Bondi declined time and again to directly answer.
“This is pathetic. This is pathetic,” said Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about different Trump administration officials revealed to have had ties to Epstein. “I am not asking trick questions here. The American people have a right to know the answers to this.”
Bondi has struggled to move past the backlash over the Epstein files since she handed out the binders to a group of social media influencers in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, leading to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told Epstein victims to come forward to law enforcement with any information about their abuse and said she was “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told the survivors that “any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”
But she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience and apologize for what Trump’s Justice Department has “put them through.” She accused the Democrat of “theatrics.”
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill came a year into her tumultuous tenure, which has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target political foes of the president. Just a day earlier, the department sought to secure charges against Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.
Turning aside criticism that the Justice Department under her watch has become politicized, Bondi touted the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to restore the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two federal criminal cases that were abandoned after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference a year makes,” Jordan said. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions — upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”
Democrats, meanwhile, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions in the Epstein files that exposed intimate details about victims and included nude photographs. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“You’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change the course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her, “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
Bondi told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Department officials have said they took pains to protect survivors, but errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials and the speed at which the department had to release them. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department had taken down files when it was made aware that they included victims’ information and said staff had tried to do their “very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation” mandating the release of the files.
After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein “client list” existed and there was no reason to make additional files public. That set off a furor that prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represented a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her desk for review. Bondi later said she was referring to the Epstein files in total, not a specific client list.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not going to put up with it.”
With victims of Epstein seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi forcefully defended the department’s handling of the files related to the well-connected financier, an issue that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump’s successes, even though it was Republicans who initiated the furor over the records and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers at the White House last year.
The hearing quickly devolved into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats while insisting she was not “going to get in the gutter” with them. In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Aiming to help Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to keep the focus on bread-and-butter law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly gleaned from news headlines as she sought to cast them as disinterested in violence in their districts. Democrats grew exasperated as Bondi declined time and again to directly answer.
“This is pathetic. This is pathetic,” said Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about different Trump administration officials revealed to have had ties to Epstein. “I am not asking trick questions here. The American people have a right to know the answers to this.”
Bondi has struggled to move past the backlash over the Epstein files since she handed out the binders to a group of social media influencers in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, leading to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told Epstein victims to come forward to law enforcement with any information about their abuse and said she was “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told the survivors that “any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”
But she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience and apologize for what Trump’s Justice Department has “put them through.” She accused the Democrat of “theatrics.”
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill came a year into her tumultuous tenure, which has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target political foes of the president. Just a day earlier, the department sought to secure charges against Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.
Turning aside criticism that the Justice Department under her watch has become politicized, Bondi touted the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to restore the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two federal criminal cases that were abandoned after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference a year makes,” Jordan said. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions — upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”
Democrats, meanwhile, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions in the Epstein files that exposed intimate details about victims and included nude photographs. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“You’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change the course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her, “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
Bondi told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Department officials have said they took pains to protect survivors, but errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials and the speed at which the department had to release them. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department had taken down files when it was made aware that they included victims’ information and said staff had tried to do their “very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation” mandating the release of the files.
After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein “client list” existed and there was no reason to make additional files public. That set off a furor that prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represented a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her desk for review. Bondi later said she was referring to the Epstein files in total, not a specific client list.
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