Five Arrested as French Police Expand Probe into Louvre Jewel Heist

Misr Mubasher – October 30, 2025

The Paris prosecutor’s office announced that French police have arrested five new suspects as part of the ongoing investigation into the major jewel theft at the Louvre Museum earlier this month.

The arrests were carried out Wednesday evening across several neighborhoods in Paris and its suburbs, following DNA analysis of samples found inside the Galerie d’Apollon — the hall that displays France’s royal treasures and Napoleon-era jewelry.

Investigation Points to Organized Network

According to French prosecutors, evidence indicates that the theft was executed by a professional network using advanced methods to breach the museum and disable its surveillance systems.
Police are still searching for the alleged mastermind, believed to have fled France within hours of the heist.
The value of the stolen jewels is estimated at more than US $102 million.

Security officials confirmed that investigators have made “significant progress” in identifying the culprits, though none of the stolen pieces have yet been recovered.

The Louvre Under Scrutiny

Described as the most serious museum robbery in Europe in three decades, the incident has prompted the French government to reassess security systems in national museums.
The French Senate has also discussed a report addressing “security gaps in cultural institutions.”

France’s Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, condemned the theft as “an attack on the national heritage,” emphasizing that recovering the stolen jewels remains “a top priority for the state.”