Fez – French authorities say the thieves entered via an upper window and smashed two cases in under eight minutes; Empress Eugénie’s crown was dropped outside and recovered, but the rest of the loot remains missing. 

The heist targeted pieces formerly belonging to famous owners and well-documented provenance — making the loss cultural, as much as financial. 

Here’s what was taken and why each jewel mattered.

Queen Marie-Amélie & Queen Hortense sapphire set (3 pieces)

What’s missing: A tiara, a necklace, and a single earring from a 19th-century sapphire parure worn by Queen Marie-Amélie (wife of King Louis-Philippe) and previously linked to Hortense de Beauharnais. 

Why it matters: This modular court set exemplified how jewels were reconfigured—tiara elements could detach as brooches—emulating the flexible etiquette of the July Monarchy. The Louvre acquired key sapphire elements in 1985, preserving one of the gallery’s most photographed ensembles. 

Empress Marie-Louise emeralds (3 pieces)

What’s missing: An emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from the set associated with Marie-Louise of Austria, Napoleon I’s second wife.

Why it matters: After the 1810 marriage, the court jeweler Nitot supplied opal-and-diamond and emerald-and-diamond parures that projected imperial legitimacy; parts of the emerald set later moved through Habsburg hands before elements entered the Louvre in 2004. Recent reporting notes the stones’ famed Colombian origin (Muzo). 

Empress Eugénie’s bow (corsage) brooch

What’s missing: A spectacular “diamond bow” once transformed from the centerpiece of an 1855 diamond belt and later worn as a bodice ornament by Empress Eugénie, style-maker of the Second Empire. 

Why it matters: The brooch captures Paris’s Exposition Universelle era, when court display and French jewelry houses competed with London for spectacle. It re-entered the Louvre collection in 2008. 

Empress Eugénie’s tiara

What’s missing: A Second Empire tiara attributed to Eugénie. 

Why it matters: the piece illustrates the period’s taste for airy diamond frameworks that complemented crinolines and court portraiture, and it anchors the museum’s narrative of Napoleon III’s ceremonial image-making. Eugénie’s separate crown was recovered nearby, although damaged. 

Empress Eugénie’s reliquary brooch

What’s missing: A devotional-form brooch made by Alfred Bapst in 1855, pavé-set with 94 diamonds, including stones believed to descend from Mazarin’s gifts to Louis XIV. 

Why it matters: It folds 17th-century court history into a 19th-century object and was among the Louvre’s earliest crown-jewel acquisitions, entering the collection in 1887. 

The room and the stakes

All eight items were displayed in the Galerie d’Apollon, a ceremonial hall reworked for Louis XIV and the stage for France’s crown jewels, alongside the Regent, Sancy, and Hortensia diamonds—untouched in the raid and still on view in the broader collection. 

Investigators are pursuing a suspected organized team; Interpol has listed the jewels, and the Louvre has acknowledged security gaps while the gallery remains under review.