From the outside, what unfolded at the Louvre on Sunday appeared akin to an athletic feat. In a swift seven minutes, a band of thieves scaled a furniture elevator, broke through a gallery window, ground through display cases and rode off in broad daylight on motorbikes with a heap of French crown jewels.

But to Robert Wittman, the former senior investigator and founder of the FBI’s National Art Crime Team, “the real art in an art heist isn’t the stealing, it’s the selling,” he told The Washington Post.

“These types of things are so well-known that it’s almost impossible to walk into anywhere and just try to off-load,” he said of the purloined items, which include headpieces, necklaces and earrings worn by French royalty.

Wherever the thieves are, they’re probably not resting on their je

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