Why French Museums Keep Getting Robbed

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

The daylight heist at the Louvre Museum in October, during which thieves made off with more than $100 million in crown jewels, captured the world's attention. But the theft was just one in a series that have taken place at museums all across France this year. WSJ’s Noemie Bisserbe explains how the wave of heists reveals deep-rooted security vulnerabilities in the country’s hundreds of museums— and raises questions about what it takes to protect national treasures. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - How an Antiques Dealer Uncovered a Massive Museum Heist - Six Days of Chaos at MGM's Casinos - How Investigators Cracked a $3.4 Billion Crypto Heist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Almost exactly a month ago, thieves raided the Louvre Museum in Paris and in broad
0:09.6	daylight made off with millions of dollars worth of jewels.
0:15.1	They apparently used a mobile exterior freight elevator, if you will, to get up to the Apollo room.
0:23.6	Two people dressed in workers' vests, cutting the glass and grabbing the jewels.
0:28.6	Getting away with an estimated $102 million worth of jewelry in just seven minutes.
0:34.6	While the world's eyes were still on the Louvre, the mayor of a small French town got some surprising news.
0:41.4	She received a call from the director of the local museum,
0:46.3	who informed them that the local museum had been robbed too,
0:50.7	that a collection of gold coins had disappeared during the night.
0:55.1	And the museum is called the Muse de Lümière, Denis Didreau.
0:58.8	And so it's a museum which is dedicated to this French philosopher.
1:03.8	And the museum is really kept by the city.
1:07.6	Long is a town of roughly 8,000 people,
1:10.2	about a three and a half hour drive from Paris.
1:12.7	The robbery at the museum there, happening so soon after the Louvre heist,
1:16.8	hit the local community hard.
1:19.2	The Louvre heist happened like on a Sunday morning and that robbery was on the evening of that same Sunday.
1:26.2	So just less than 24 hours.
1:28.4	Oh, wow.
1:29.2	Basically the same day.
1:30.6	Basically the same day, yeah.
1:32.3	Two museum robberies within a day of each other.
	...

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