In 1911, an Italian decorator named Vincenzo Peruggia walked out of the Louvre one day with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, nonchalantly disappearing into the streets of Paris.
There wasn’t much to it: Peruggia disguised himself as a Louvre employee, unmounted the painting, and casually left. Nobody chased after him. Peruggia went on the lamb in Florence, and the Mona Lisa wouldn’t be recovered for another two years.
On October 19, the Louvre’s security system came under scrutiny again when thieves, dressed as workers, donning yellow vests and all, made off in broad daylight with invaluable jewelry items. A crown owned by Empress Eugenie of France was recovered on the scene, but the thieves made away with nine precious items.
They used a furniture elevator to access the second story where, using angle grinders, they forced open a window to enter the Apollo Gallery. There, they reportedly used disc cutters to cut open the display cases, then grabbed the goods, returned to their lift, and got away on scooters. They have yet to be found.
Construction is common around the palatial building, and the burglars used that to their advantage. The controversy arrived amid an international architecture competition aimed at modernizing the grounds and enhancing overall security.
Louvre – Nouvelle Renaissance, as the competition is named, was announced by President Emmanuel Macron in January. It calls for a major overhaul to France’s crown jewel of culture, estimated to cost between $815 million and $932 million. A large portion of that budget will go toward modernizing the museum’s security system, according to Rachida Dati, the French culture minister.
The design teams shortlisted in the competition were recently announced. Among the firms vying for the commission are local practices alongside Diller Scofidio + Renfro, SANAA, Sou Fujimoto, and Selldorf Architects.
🇫🇷 Infographics showing the location of the Louvre Museum and the exterior and interior of the Apollo Gallery, where thieves stole priceless jewels on October 19 pic.twitter.com/hgl01HBxVQ
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 20, 2025
The Louvre’s president said the renovation “provides for increased security. It will guarantee the preservation and protection of what constitutes our memory and our culture.” A government audit, set for public release later this month, was leaked to Radio France and revealed the Louvre’s security system was “outdated and inadequate.”
In the Louvre’s Denon section, where the Apollo Gallery and Mona Lisa are house, one-third of the rooms have no cameras. In the Richelieu Wing, 75 percent of rooms are without video surveillance, the report found.
Natalie Goulet, a member of the French Senate’s finance committee, told the BBC the gallery’s localized alarm was recently broken, however, alarms did sound in other parts of the museum during the heist.
“What you must remember about France is that our buildings are historic monuments,” French culture minister Rachida Dati told ABC News after the robbery. “So, it is more complex to secure them.”
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