Louvre says crown crushed during heist can be restored

One of the only surviving French sovereign crowns, found mangled on the floor of the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery after thieves smashed their way into its display case during an audacious heist last year, can be restored, the museum has said.

The crown of Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, was found crushed and badly deformed, while a fragment including a diamond‑and‑emerald lay nearby.

The museum said some of the deformation was "probably due to the stress it experienced during its removal from the display case through the relatively narrow slot made by the thieves' angle grinder, adding that then, "a violent impact" crushed the crown.

Nonetheless, the crown survived and Louvre experts say almost all of its original components remain intact, making a full restoration possible.

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The damage occurred during the heist on 19 October 2025, in which thieves broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight and used power tools to steal eight items of jewellery before escaping on scooters.

Among the stolen items were tiaras, a brooch, an emerald necklace and earrings, which between them are encrusted with thousands of diamonds worth around €88m (£76m).

Prosecutors say the thieves were inside the Louvre for less than four minutes before they made their getaway.

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the raid, but investigators believe the organiser of the heist remains at large.

The day after the theft, the judicial police handed the recovered crown to the Louvre’s Department of Decorative Arts.

While most of the damaged crown was still in one piece, one hoop was torn off and lost, of the eight diamond‑and‑emerald palmettes and eight gold eagles that ring the crown, one eagle is missing, while four palmettes had become detached but were recovered.

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The team said the emerald‑and‑diamond globe at the top remains intact, and all 56 emeralds survived.

Ten of the crown's 1,354 diamonds – all tiny stones at the base – are missing, with nine more detached but preserved.

Given the crown’s symbolic importance and the unprecedented nature of the repair, the Louvre will appoint an accredited restorer through a competitive process – to comply with the law – the museum said.

An advisory committee of experts will oversee the work, chaired by Louvre President‑Director Laurence des Cars.

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Commissioned by Napoleon III for the 1855 Universal Exhibition, Empress Eugénie’s crown was crafted by the imperial jeweler Alexandre Gabriel Lemonnier, with sculptor Gilbert designing the long‑winged eagles and jeweler Pierre Maheu overseeing the workshop.

After the fall of the Empire, the crown was returned to Eugénie in 1875 – a twist of fate that saved it from the mass sale of crown jewels ordered by the Third Republic in 1887. Passed down through the Bonaparte family, it was acquired by the Louvre in 1988.

Though never used in a coronation, it is one of only three sovereign crowns preserved in France, alongside the crown of Louis XV and the so‑called crown of Charlemagne made for Napoleon I.