It was a jaw-droppingly brazen crime that represented an ‘attack on a heritage that we cherish, because it is our history’, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Four raiders in high-vis gear, passing for construction workers, broke into the world’s biggest and most-visited museum in daylight and left with priceless treasures that once belonged to Napoleon.
And it only took them seven minutes.
No suspects have yet been caught following the robbery yesterday morning, which resulted in the loss of nine items from the Louvre collection.
There has been widespread shock that a site housing countless world-famous artworks and artefacts could be so vulnerable – even from a gang described as a ‘highly organised commando unit’.
So how did they pull it off? Here’s what we know so far.