What exactly was stolen from the Louvre?

The thieves were only inside the museum for four minutes on October 19, but their actions have now been making the news across the world for several months. After all, they managed what no-one thought could be possible, especially in 2025. The Louvre, perhaps the most famous museum on earth, surely couldn't be that easy to rob. Could it?

All suspected members of the gang have now been arrested and charged by French police but their loot, worth tens of millions of pounds - if it even is feasible to put a price on such things - is still missing. It is a tragedy as many of the stolen crown jewels had only been in the Louvre for a short while, having been sold off by the state in 1887 and considerable effort had been put into bringing them back into the public domain over the years.

It may now be too late for you to stroll into the grand, golden Apollo gallery and see them for yourself, but it seems worth taking a moment to look into those remarkable pieces of jewellery, the people who wore them and, of course, the people who made them.

Through these pieces of metal and precious stones, the story of a country undergoing decades of change, strife, small revolutions and endless renewal can be told. You just need to know what to look for.

1. Sapphire parure, including a diadem, a necklace, and one earring

The striking parure ended up being worn by not one, not two, but at least three prominent women across the centuries. The story goes that its very first owner was Marie Antoinette, but there is little out there to support the claim.

Instead, its earliest appearance in written correspondence dates from the time of Hortense de Beauharnais (1783 - 1837), queen of Holland and mother of Napoleon III, to whom it definitely did belong.

Another famous owner was Marie-Amélie, wife of Louis Philippe I and last queen of France. She gave many of her jewels to her various descendants as wedding presents over the years.

In 1864, she had the diadem modified, removing four of the nine original elements, before handing it down to her grandson's new wife.

Eventually, the parure ended up in the hands of Isabelle of Orléans (1878–1961), of the Orléanist family who, by then, were frustrated pretenders to the French throne. Her son, Henri, Count of Paris, sold the jewels to the Louvre in 1985.

2. Emerald parure, including a necklace and a pair of earrings

Commissioned in 1810 by Napoleon from the House of Nitot to celebrate his wedding to Marie-Louise, the Austrian Archduchess, these jewels "carried within them the power of the French Empire at that time". According to Ghysdaël-Trombetta, the president of the Association d'Histoire de la Bijouterie-Joaillerie, a French group specialising in the history of jewellery, "France reached an uncommon level of power, and Napoleon decided to give his wife jewels that truly represented the power he had attained."

"The necklace contains the most perfect stones one could hope for at that time on the French market of the First Empire, and the setting is perfect, there's nothing to criticise. It's quite remarkable."

The firm was originally headed by Marie-Etienne Nitot, who had trained with Marie Antoinette's jeweller before setting up his own shop. Though no-one knows precisely what happened, the story goes that Nitot once saved the life of Napoleon and, out of gratitude, the emperor made him his official jeweller.

François-Regnault, his son, took over in 1809 after Marie-Etienne's death. He made this parure and others for the empress, including her famous acrostic bracelets, whose precious stones spelled out the names of her two children.

As Napoleon fell, Nitot, a fierce supporter of the emperor, decided to leave both Paris and jewellery behind, instead moving to the Château d'Echarcon in the countryside and becoming the local mayor. His body still rests in a chapel financed by grateful villagers. The parure, meanwhile, wasn't sold in 1887, as it wasn't part of the national collection, and it was acquired by the Louvre in 2004.

3. Diamond reliquary brooch

Writing about the piece, French heritage expert Julien Lacaze remarked that "the diamonds arranged in butterfly wings during the Second Empire by the jeweller Bapts are Mazarin numbers 17 and 18 (bequeathed to Louis XIV by his minister), while the large diamond in the center was the fourth button of Louis XIV's bodysuit, before being used as an earring by Marie-Antoinette. A brief summary of French history, indeed". Perhaps this was why the brooch was given straight to the Louvre in 1887, when most of the crown jewel collection was sold off.

Made in 1855 by Paul-Alfred Bapst (1823 - 1879) for Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, the brooch curiously never actually contained a relic, nor did it have the space to hide one inside. While it wasn't uncommon at the time for precious stones to be reused, the brooch's very build also ensconced it in French royal and imperial history. "It's a brooch whose construction is clearly inspired by 18th-century jewelry, or at least the late 17th century", explained Ghysdaël-Trombetta. "The back is entirely made of metal; there's no openwork. The metal is chased with very elegant arabesque motifs, which are truly inspired by the 17th and 18th centuries."

There must have also been a personal dimension for Bapst, of whom relatively little is known, as he came from a long line of court goldsmiths. Georges-Michel, his ancestor, started working for the court in 1770. His first cousin once removed, Georges-Frédéric, also made many famous pieces, including the Marie Thérèse tiara, which sits in the Louvre today.

4. Pearl and diamond diadem

Another one of Eugenie's pieces, the diadem was created in 1852 for her wedding to Napoleon III, as a gift from her new husband. Some of the pearls were taken from jewels once owned by Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's wife. It was sold off in 1887, then donated to the Louvre in 1982.

Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier (1822–1880), who was commissioned to make it, is credited for turning the now-globally famous Place Vendôme into the place to be for prominent Parisian jewellers. While running his shop at number 6, he went to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and won the Medal of the Council, the event's highest honour, for parures he had designed for Queen Isabella II of Spain.

After the proclamation of the Second French Empire a year later, Napoleon III appointed Lemonnier as purveyor to the Imperial Court. The high point of his career came in 1855, during the Exposition Universelle in Paris, for which he made two crowns for the emperor and his wife.

"These jewels would showcase to all the foreign visitors of this Universal Exhibition the very highest standards of French art", Ghysdaël-Trombetta said. "It was the first time that the crown jewelers under the Second Empire took on such a significant role, representing both public and political power, as well as the industrial and commercial power of France."

5. Diamond bodice bow

Perhaps the most striking piece to be stolen in the heist, the bow started its life as something else entirely. "We imagine this bow as a kind of brooch worn on the chest; in fact, it was the clasp, so to speak, of an immense diamond belt that fell around Eugénie's waist", explained Ghysdaël-Trombetta. Though originally worn as such, the empress eventually decided to get it transformed into a more manageable bow.

"It's a very interesting piece of jewellery because it embodies the historicist dimension of Second Empire tastes", he added. "Eugénie, as we know, was a great admirer of Marie Antoinette; she was behind a major exhibition on the cult of Marie Antoinette, which brought together many of her personal belongings. In her own jewelry, she sought to emulate, to some extent, the sumptuous taste of the 18th century."

One of the many pieces to be made for the Exposition Universelle of 1855, it was built by François Kramer (1825 - 1903), a jeweller originally born in Cologne, which was then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. After a stint in his father's workshop, he moved to Paris and worked for Jules Fossin & Fils, goldsmiths to the royal court. When Napoléon III proclaimed the second empire, Orléans royalist Fossin refused to continue working for the emperor, and Kramer replaced him as jeweller to the imperial court.

Despite his high-profile position, very little information remains about his life; his pieces, however, are still famous to this day. Hopefully one day, people from France and abroad will once again be able to witness their splendor in the gallery of Apollo, right where they belong.