LONDON — French authorities arrested two males in relation to final week’s major jewel heist at Paris’ Louvre Museum, the French Nationwide Police confirmed to ABC Information, amid a nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators.
One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport whereas making an attempt to board a aircraft sure for Algeria, police mentioned.
Police didn’t supply any data on the timing or circumstances of the second suspect’s arrest.
Police stand guard outdoors the Louvre museum at Louvre, October 19, 2025, in Paris, France.
Remon Haazen/Getty Pictures
Each males are suspected of getting been a part of a group alleged to have robbed the Louvre final week. They’re each from Seine Saint Denis, a northeastern suburb of Paris, police mentioned.
No new data has been made public on the whereabouts of the stolen jewels that Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau estimated to be worth $102 million.
French Inside Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for making the arrests in a social media post on Sunday.
“I want to supply my warmest congratulations to the investigators who labored tirelessly as I requested them to and who all the time had my full confidence,” Nuñez mentioned within the publish. “The investigations should proceed in accordance with the secrecy of the investigation underneath the authority of the specialised interregional court docket of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Workplace.”
“We’ll proceed with the identical willpower! Let’s preserve going!” Nuñez added.
Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for the Louvre suspects after the theft from the museum’s Apollo Gallery on the morning of Oct. 19, shortly after the museum opened to the general public.
The stolen objects included crowns, necklaces, earrings and brooches, a few of which as soon as belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his spouse.
The group of thieves drove as much as the aspect of the museum in what police described as a “cellular freight elevator” outfitted with a metallic ladder on the again that was prolonged as much as a window, in accordance with the Paris police.
“They deployed the freight elevator, securing the environment with development cones, earlier than accessing the second ground, within the Apollo Gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder,” in accordance with the police assertion.
“Inside, they then smashed two show circumstances, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ utilizing the angle grinder and stole quite a few items of high-value jewellery,” police mentioned.
An infographic of the heist on the Louvre Museum.
Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that authorities would catch these liable for what he described as an “assault on a heritage that we cherish as a result of it’s our historical past.”
French Tradition Minister Rachida Dati, who’s overseeing the investigation alongside the Justice Ministry, described the heist to ABC Information as “a easy, however spectacular operation.”
Quickly after the theft, investigators mentioned 4 suspects left the scene on two motorbikes, winding their method by central Paris and final noticed dashing southeast on Freeway A6 out of Paris and within the path of Lyon.
ABC Information’ Aicha Elhammar and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
