The Louvre museum’s Apollo gallery, where thieves carried out one of the most daring eight-minute heists in years, is once again open to the public. However, with a twist, there is nothing left to steal.
The Apollo Gallery welcomed visitors on Wednesday, July 22, nine months after four masked thieves broke in and stole France’s crown jewels in broad daylight.
The museum has removed everything from the room, including the empty display cases, leaving only the gilded ceilings, frescoes and sculpted walls. The gallery has returned to its original form as it was three and a half centuries ago (in the 18th century). At that time, the gallery served as a ceremonial room for Louis XIV, which he used to walk around and look up, not to see boxes full of diamonds.
In an interview with Le Parisien, The president director of the Louvre Museum, Christophe Leribault, stated that the surviving jewels will be moved to a new vault somewhere in the museum, announcing that they will not return to the Apollo gallery.
He described the jewelry’s new location as “windowless, secure, nothing like the configuration that allowed four men on scooters to enter.”
On October 19 last year, thieves used a truck-mounted lift to reach a first-floor window, cutting through the glass and getting in and out with eight pieces in less than eight minutes.
Among what they took: a tiara that belonged to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, along with jewelry linked to other French queens dating back generations.
All this amounted to about 88 million euros, or about 102 million dollars.
Only one piece reappeared. Eugénie’s crown was found outside the museum, apparently abandoned by the thieves as they fled. Everything else is still missing, as are the men who took him.
