Thieves steal crown jewels in 4 minutes from Louvre Museum
7mon 1d ago by lemmy.world/u/Mog_Spawn in news from apnews.com
The article can't be bothered to include any pictures of the stolen jewels
edit: I think these are the stolen jewels
They would have taken their own photos, but the jewels were stolen so they couldn't.
I won the luck lotto with an Amazon mistake that packed a freakin' Switch 2 with my order of storage containers a couple months ago. 🤣
Reported
"Why do you think these are the stolen items?"
"Well, for one, I just took these pictures in my cellar of stolen jewels..."
I'll keep an eye out for them.
I saw the top piece in another article, and I heard about all the sapphires. This is my first time seeing them, and they are unbelievable. It looks like they're the right works.
There was also a crown that got dropped in the street and took some damage. At least it was recovered.
I once read a book by a retired jewel thief whose statutes of limitations has all run out, and he said that that the first thing he did was break down the jewelry, sort the stones, and melt down the settings. Then he'd fence them ASAP. Always. So all that jewelry he stole, all that sentimental value, is gone forever.
These works are priceless not only for their craftsmanship and beauty, but their historic significance as well. They were literally created to be fit for a King, or Queen.
Unfortunately, the intrinsic value of those old, perfect stones on today's market, far outweighs their historic or artistic value. There is likely some Sociopathic Oligarchs who think those stones would look better in modern settings, and be better served by being worn around, and not just put on display in some museum where nobody goes.
That's a lot of loose stones, some of them very large, and some small. There are enough to make many, many pieces of jewelry. Perhaps there will be a bit of a black market among jewelers who cater to the very wealthy, to sell works that includes a Louvre stone or two.
Last headline I saw about this said 7 minutes. Pretty soon the thieves will be reaching back in time to grab these things.
Maybe they're hoping that, by posting the wrong figure, they'll compel the thieves to correct them, thereby revealing themselves.
6 or 7 minutes you say? I’m sorry. I’ll see myself out.
So you have the jewels. Now what? Do they just go into some rich person's secret collection? It's not like you can fence these things.
On jobs like these, they already have a buyer.
They said with suspicious confidence....
When the French Blue was stolen after the revolution, it was recut and probably became the Hope Diamond.
If they can't find a buyer, they'll melt it down and recut any gems that are too recognizable. Easy money, if you know the right people.
In the melt down and recut scenario, is it "easy money" though? Seems like robbing the most famous museum in the planet would be inviting one of the most well resourced investigations over gems that I presume could have been stolen from somewhere a little more low profile.
I'm not remotely knowledgeable, but it feels like it wouldn't be worth going after the louvre specifically without confidence you have someone willing to acquire the pieces intact rather than having to erase nearly all their "value" in the process.
It certainly wouldn't be the desired outcome! But the point is that there's money to be made either way.
They think they'll dismantle and melt them and try to fence the stones (stones, especially famous ones are pretty worthless). They should get about 200 k€ for the lot if they're lucky. At least according to art specialists debating on news channels.
If they're sophisticated thieves, they will be sold intact to some overseas billionaire for much more than that. You'd be surprised (or maybe not that surprised) how much stolen art and artefacts winds up in the private collections of rich assholes.
For some reason, this is not considered likely by the investigators. Don't ask me why.
They can’t prosecute the rich, why even bother investigating them.
I won’t ask you why but will ask you for a source as I find it surprising too.
Source is local news channels.
Feels like that would be super high risk for relatively low reward. I would have guessed if you wanted some relatively anonymous gems you'd do just as well with much less risk finding a couple of much lower profile jewelry stores or something.
You seem to think criminals have actually reflected upon this. They might actually be idiots.
I suppose I may be overestimating Louvre security. I guess I would assume a criminal might have to be somewhat smart to overcome what I presumed to be higher security than you might find at a typical target for idiot criminals.
Oh yes, there's basically no security. At least nothing to deal with a quick grab like that. The only concern seems to have been terrorism. And even then,it was clearly not very well taken into account.
Curious why you got a downvote, if there's a good reason, I would have found a reply more informative...
Presumably because I said "no security ", which is a bit of an exaggeration. Very inadequate security would have been better. Supposedly there's a plan to upgrade the whole thing, but that should take a year or two still.
Float a line to the Saudi Royal family Jared Kushner, they’d buy them no shame at all
Bold of you to assume they haven't already bought them.
I'd check the owners house, I assume they're insured.
They're part of the French crown jewels and had been acquired by the Louvre in 1985 so they were kept in (and stolen from) the owner's house.
They'll be broken down, metal smelted, gems recut if necessary. They're gone, who cares. It's not like they were the actual crown jewels, just a few baubles.
Someone should really try to beat that record should they be returned.
I'm Danny Ocean, and I approve this message.
I thought this type of crime was deeply rooted in the past, and fiction. If no-one got seriously hurt: chapeau!
Maybe not so unusual. I was at a museum in Germany on vacation a few months before I saw in the news there was a jewel heist there
So you were scoping the place before the deed? Hmmmm
i bet it was lupin!
{Dr House barges in} "It's never lupu...sorry, what did you say?”
It fits
This is art. Thank you for taking the time to make this. You're reviving the spirit of the best parts of the Old 'Net. :D
Omg, ty not just for saying that but for the "old net" comment too - I really felt that deeply as I made the simple edit, like a pre-nostalgic sombre post of something I might be doing for the last time (not really).
Beautiful
I never understood stealing high value items. That shit is gonna be so hot it'd take a deep network to fence.
You're assuming they don't have a customer yet.
Indeed, it's not like this was opportunism.
Just give them to some local children to play with.
As an aside, am I the only one who always thought Alfred was kinda a piece of shit for that story? Like a lot of Batman stuff hasn't aged well, but even when I first watched that movie, going scorched earth for a jewel thief was fucked up.
Some people want to watch the world burn. Alfred actually did set their world on fire and watched it burn.
Melt it down, problem solved
I mean, they don't have that high of a melting point... you'll end up with a lump of worthless alumina, sure, but if you really want to melt them, you can. 🤷♂️
Melt the gold/silver, the stones can be re-shaped. It will lose value but I think it's the only way to fend it.
Things with historical value are worth far more than the cost of their raw materials. These are crown jewels, not copper pipe being sold by meth addicts.
Yeah, I know, but the thing with that is that everyone will know it's stolen, so no one dares to buy it. Because otherwise they will sit on super rare stolen items, which could land them in prison for the rest of their lives. To the only way to fend it is to melt it down, reshape the stones and sell it for its materials for far less than it's original value, or sell it to someone who wanted these specifically and hired you to the job. But again, why would you want to sit on something as hot as this...
Noo, possibly couldn't, they're the good guys now
Officially as of the sequel, they're actually dead, but unofficially they're secret agents so anything could go now ha ha!
I just watched the sequel, it was pretty good. Dreamworks is on some real solid shit lately
And I am so thankful its actually good because my niece has been wanting to watch it EVERY time she comes over
"Guys, the jewels, go get them."
"I don't know much about rocks, but I know what I like, and that is rocks that sell."
- Bain (Payday 2)
"It's a funny fuckin' world we live in, eh?"
- Hoxton (Payday 2)
Can’t wait for the film
Thats where I wear a chastity belt…no ones getting their hands on my crown jewels.
I love how my brain immediately pictured a jewel encrusted royal chastity belt despite nothing in your comment saying anything to suggest that
With the word "Princess" spelled out in diamonds washed in the blood of African children!
Crown jewels…Brit slang for the gentlemans area.
Where was Nicholas Cage?
Didn't anyone bother to get an airtag on those things?
These trinkets will go to a very rich collector, not through your typical "fence the goods" path. I'd check Mar-a-Lago as a first step.
Where was security during all this? Was there NO camera coverage on that part of the building? This is The Louvre, not a pawn shop. All the reporters keeps saying this is "the crime of the century" to which I say, "well yeah, but that's only because your awful security made that possible!"
We are in the "telling the public what evidence they have will alert the perps" phase, only wild media speculation until the investigators are done doing their thing.
I look forward to Internet Historian doing one of his stock image gilliamation videos about this.
can't wait for the true crime yt essay
Oh no, the world is missing some shiny rocks. I demand the planet cease rotating until these rocks are restituted!
I wonder if they were listening to that while doing the job. 3:30 fits the 4 minute time frame
Run the jewels, fast!
Underrated comment.
I think it’s a tragedy as these represent a piece of history that can’t be reclaimed. And, because the items are so hot, the thieves will likely just destroy them and sell the pieces.
Best thing to do is to smash them and sell them afterwards to different people, no?
No they're worthy because of their history
They’re too hot to sell or own. Likely will be broken down and sold as pieces
Congratulations, they just stole a lump of carbon or silica.
That fact they didn’t secretly GPS tag them… that’s on them, so many different ways to track “PEOPLE” let alone objects, so… who fucked up? Should have been years ago…
People legit put AirTags/gps devices on bikes and cars, etc… it could have been these items as well. Dumb!
How you gonna air tag an earring?
1300 diamonds in Eugénie‘s crown? That shoulda been sold and given to the people long time ago. Take a pic and move on.
They were in a museum, they belonged to the people there
Liquidate some old rich people’s assets to benefit the people of France, or keep them in a box to stare at and remember how much wealthier they all were than you? “Belonged to the people” is a very loose description since they have no control over what the Louvre does.
Sales tax on the tickets alone more than makes up for the value of the item itself though. 8.7 million visitors a year results in a shitton of tax money which benefits the people of France.
Totally, but people would still line up to see Mona Lisa. Not saying to get rid of the museum.
Sure, though it could be less people for the same ticket price.
If we look at the extreme case, removing every item from the Louvre but the Mona Lisa would result in significantly less tax income because there's no way millions would spend [insert Louvre ticket price I am too lazy to research]€ for looking at a single painting for 5 minutes.
Museums with more items generally result in more money.
Who said to make the Louvre just the Mona Lisa?
It was an example to illustrate the relation:
Number of items ∝ Tax Revenue
Sell off some royal jewelry and I’m sure people would pay the same price for the ticket.
If the Mona Lisa were stolen; you’d have been arguing that that should’ve been sold off as well. These jewels are also historical artwork and have a rich history behind them that can never be recovered.
This is your brain on workerism
Enjoy your cake
These are beautiful impressive works of art and craftsmanship and you want to sell them off for like 8 hours of government budget so they can sit in one of those rich guys collections.
You arent just going on about lame ass workerist platitudes about "benefiting the people" its not even a coherent position once you step back even a little.
Wow you love the crown. You’re unable to even think of ways to spend the money outside of government. This mentality is exactly that of Empress Eugénie’s and why the Second Empire was easily overthrown. Valuing jewels over people is astonishingly dystopian.
Diamonds are worthless. Shiny coal. Some interesting industries applications, but you can get much better quality ones for much cheaper, if you're looking for that kind of thing.
Diamonds are worthless is a crazy statement. Tell that to every person who has ever had to buy a diamond engagement ring.
Falling for a well known scam doesn't make the crap you bought any less worthless.
Buy a moissanite, if you want a shiny rock. It's prettier, almost as hard, cheaper than the overpriced cartel shit, and you won't be financing said cartels.
(And if you just want something particularly hard or good at heat transfer, industrial diamonds are quite inexpensive.)
Just because you think something is worthless doesn’t mean you can afford to buy it.
It's fucking carbon.
It's one of the most common gems on Earth.
The only reason jewelry diamonds are expensive (industrial ones are cheap) is the artificial scarcity enforced by the criminal cartels controlling their monopoly.
If it’s up then it’s up. You’re opinion clearly has no effect on the market.
You’re opinion clearly has no effect on the market.
Of course not. De Beers' does. That's the point.
Do try to resell a jewelry diamond, though, and tell me how much profit you made.
The point is that Empress Eugénie’s crown alone could fetch tens of millions for the people of France, whether you like it or not.
The point is that 99% of the value of the crown jewels is in their historical and cultural significance, 99% of the rest of the value is on the design and craftsmanship, 99% of the remaining value is on the metals and jewels excluding the diamonds, and the remaining one millionth is on the diamonds themselves.
And that's probably exaggerating the value of the diamonds.
Focusing on the diamonds is like looking at a famous painting and deciding it must be valuable because the nail it's hanged on is particularly shiny.
When it comes to the value of the crown, the diamonds are less relevant than the dust it's covered on (which at least has historical significance).