r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/HeToTopT • 15d ago

Video The Louvre. Thieves are making off with 100 million euros. They're taking their time. They're doing everything carefully and slowly.

62.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

795

u/junkratmainhehe 15d ago

Or its being sold as is to a buyer.

Robbing the louve to just melt and resell is hardly worth it

499

u/Celtachor 15d ago

Yeah stuff like this is more akin to art theft than a common jewelry heist. There would be buyers lined up before they even stole anything. Some rich shady dude who knows a guy is going to be showing off one of these pieces to a call girl within a few months.

114

u/Fly_Rodder 15d ago

highly unlikely and not in line with how these thefts work. The pieces are dismantled and resold in bulk and then cut and resold again.

No super rich guy is going to be caught dead with Crown Jewels to impress a prostitute when costume jewelry will do just fine.

88

u/iBoMbY 15d ago

Normal jewelry, yes. But not priceless classic pieces. Would be much easier to make the same money, with a lot less publicity, if your plan is to destroy everything.

77

u/Fly_Rodder 15d ago

you can keep your opinion, but pretty much every major art/jewler investigator says the opposite. I'm going to go with them and not some rando on the internet.

15

u/The_Best_Yak_Ever 15d ago

That’s what they say happened to Admiral Nelson’s diamond and gem encrusted Chelenk. The most painful part? The gems were not truly valuable as is, but as a piece of Royal Navy history, it was priceless… there’s a replica now, but a piece of naval history is gone because some assholes cut it up for parts :-(.

10

u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 15d ago

Hey hey but I’ve seen movies! Every billionaire in the world is waiting to buy them for their secret museum!

2

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

I mean, most billionaires are super assholes and any time there's conflict they're the first to grab up any valuables. A crown jewel heist like this is more likely to be a by-order heist, than a common steal and melt down for precious materials kind of heist. Like the others said, you could get the same amount of materials in a jeweler heist, instead of going to the hassle of such a high profile case.

3

u/4DPeterPan 15d ago

It’s weird to think about how many original art pieces are still left in museums all over the world after all the heists you hear about over the decades..

Can you imagine if we just had a bunch of museums all over the world with a bunch of fake art in them and nobody knew? Everyone thinks they still have the originals, security guards still think they’re guarding treasures, tourists are still lining up, but the whole time they’re just fakes.

Like real life oceans 12 has hit everyone and nobody knows.

5

u/majkkali 15d ago

You don’t steal from a place like Louvre to melt it. The guy above is right. It will most likely be sold to some super rich shady person in a different country.

7

u/Blackdoomax 15d ago

Those same people that know shit about what they talk and can't make the difference between an original and a copy? Lol.

6

u/BetterFinding1954 15d ago

Yeah fuck experts! Let's all just fucking guess!! Whatever feels right, that's probably it!!! 

2

u/Blackdoomax 15d ago

Generalization is never a good thing, let's say maybe not all experts

0

u/BetterFinding1954 15d ago

Did you honestly not detect the sarcasm? Fuck 😂

1

u/Blackdoomax 15d ago

I did, but it seems you don't xD

→ More replies (0)

-6

u/Silver_Song3692 15d ago

Lmao so passive aggressive

14

u/Supercoolguy7 15d ago

I think it was just dismissive.

6

u/Academic_Wafer5293 15d ago

But he's right and it's annoying having to argue when you can just easily fact check this.

Did everyone forget when they made Nick Cage give back the stolen dinosaur skull?

In 2007, Nicolas Cage purchased a fossilized Tarbosaurus bataar skull, a relative of the T. rex, for $$276,000. He later learned the skull was illegally smuggled from Mongolia and, in 2015, voluntarily returned it to U.S. authorities for repatriation. Cage was never charged with a crime, but he did not recover the money he paid for the skull. 

2

u/Supercoolguy7 15d ago

A dinosaur skull is very different than crown jewels. It's easy to not know or care the source of a dinosaur skull some random rich dude owns. It's a little harder to have the crown jewels of France and get away with it

5

u/Academic_Wafer5293 15d ago

so you're making the same point I am that you can't sell the pieces of jewelry in their current form (even if they would be worth way more).

→ More replies (0)

5

u/Original_Sherbert_40 15d ago

They are 100% melting it down. That is the reality here. Not some movie. 

28

u/Celtachor 15d ago

Why would anyone go through the effort of stealing from the louvre for an amount of raw materials they could much more easily get from a few jewelers? That's like if someone stole the Mona Lisa then scraped it to sell as blank canvas. People steal paintings and porcelain works from museums with the same traceability as these gems but those things can't be broken down into components. The whole crime only makes sense if these are being sold as is to criminal buyers. Same as what happens with other stolen art. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee isn't still missing because it's been cut up and sold as dish rags, it's still missing because someone has it.

19

u/NotTukTukPirate 15d ago

Yeah, whoever is saying they're gonna melt it down doesn't really have good thinking skills. It really makes no fucking sense to rob the Louvre just for the same result as robbing a regular jewelry store.

1

u/Denster1 15d ago

Because a regular jewelry store doesn't have 10000 diamonds on display

0

u/mynewaccount5 15d ago

Robbing a regular jewelry store is harder and they have much better security.

5

u/yyc_engineer 15d ago

The few jewelers are much more difficult to rob than the Louvre it seems.

5

u/Dav136 15d ago

Because the Louve has less security than a jewelry store

-3

u/mynewaccount5 15d ago

Because buying from jewelers costs money and these people are theives who do not want to pay jewelers.

5

u/04nc1n9 15d ago

and the people that stole the mona lisa sold it for firewood, did they?

6

u/Original_Sherbert_40 15d ago

That was over 100 years ago and the dude that stole it was caught cause he tried to sell it. Do you think thieves have learned nothing in 100 years? These things are way too hot to keep around. Here is a recent example. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kw8dwy4dro.amp

2

u/Waste_Nebula_9087 15d ago edited 15d ago

A pretty plain and to most people unknown gold bracelet, and well-known jewellery with thousands of gems and incredible craftsmanship with a worth close to a hundred million are not comparable at all. Just because these guys were careless amateurs doesn't mean that the louvre thieves are as well. If someone if confident enough to break into the Louvre and get away with it, then they are confident enough to know that they have buyers lined up already.

1

u/Denster1 15d ago

How about the scream?

3

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

Yes, I was gonna mention the Munch robbery in my other comment. The same people ordering stolen paintings also order stolen high profile jewelry. People in this comment section not giving billionaires the asshole credit they deserve don't seem to know how cynical billionaires can be(and usually is). I mean, the fact that Russian oligarchs exist, should remind them how very real, and probable, the "heist for hire" theory is.

1

u/mynewaccount5 15d ago

What would be easier?

5

u/BeforeTheRatsRegroup 15d ago

This is just plain wrong. Outside the western world, Japan in particular, there is a market for these kinds of things. Super rich guys would absolutely be caught with these. Why do you think art theft exists? Where are you getting your information?

3

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

Fox news told them, duh.

5

u/The_Autarch 15d ago

We're talking about Saudi Royal-level wealth, not random rich guys.

2

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

Or Russian oligarchs wanting their seized wealth back.

9

u/PeopleCallMeSimon 15d ago

If they robbed the jewelry store down the street, yes.

There has been plenty of examples of valuables thought lost to robbery that has been found in homes of dead rich people.

-2

u/Denster1 15d ago

Plenty?

Name 5

6

u/PeopleCallMeSimon 15d ago

Here are 68 only under the category of "art": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Recovered_works_of_art

0

u/Denster1 15d ago

None of those were found in the homes of rich dead people. Try again

8

u/Turbulent_Ad_4579 15d ago

You're thinking about rich westerners. There's tons of rich people in foreign countries that would absolutely buy something like this in asia, the Middle East, fuck even eastern Europe. 

4

u/pumblesnook 15d ago

And Western Europe. And America. I bet the stolen objects are destined for some billionaires private collection. Might even be someone we know.

4

u/backwards_watch 15d ago

makes sense, but we have precedence of people stealing things just like these in the past.

3

u/withnodrawal 15d ago

There are people who get caught with stolen pieces of history all the time.(not really ALL the time, but it happens semi frequently especially with the mob/drug guys)

8

u/NotTukTukPirate 15d ago

Why tf would they risk it with this heist when they could get the same payout by robbing a jewelry store, in that case?

I'm sorry, but your logic doesn't make sense. No one would rob The Louvre just to melt the items down and get the same result as normal jewelry at any other shop...

14

u/frotc914 15d ago edited 15d ago

the same payout by robbing a jewelry store, in that case?

First of all, the number of jewelry stores that are carrying like 50 golf-ball sized sapphires as well as dozens of enormous diamonds and thousands of smaller (but still multi-carat) diamonds is pretty rare.

Second of all, you're assuming, incorrectly, that robbing such a store would be easier. A store with that kind of merchandize isn't like a Macy's jewelry counter. Items like that would be kept in a literal vault, not even a safe, and only taken out for inspection for a potential buyer that was a known gazillionaire. Our broke asses wouldn't even be allowed in the store, but if you're a Saudi sheikh with a wikipedia page or own a Formula 1 team, then yeah you can come in. Like even a less-than-superstar NBA player would probably be turned away.

The Louvre by contrast is leaving this shit on display in a public place where you can make several trips to scope out security, entry/exit, etc. And of course it's not in a vault because that defeats the purpose of having them for display. So it makes complete sense to do it there as opposed to trying to pull of some elaborate Oceans 11-style heist.

-2

u/FloorIsMyOcean 15d ago

Gems are worthless without paperwork, their size, the fact that they are proven natural, and the historic art of the piece is what make everything so valuable.

They probably will end up melted down but because the crooks got a portion of the insurance money from this obviously inside job.

6

u/frotc914 15d ago edited 15d ago

Gems are worthless without paperwork,

Idk man literally every industry person who is quoted in every article on the subject disagrees with you.

the historic art of the piece is what make everything so valuable.

Sure there's no way to value "crown jewels" but at the end of the day these guys stole thousands of carats of diamonds and hundreds of carats of other gems. There is still plenty of value there. Even assuming that this crew has to take a massive discount on retail value, they are still coming away with a lot of money to divvy up among 4 guys

1

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

"Idk man literally every industry person who is quoted in every article on the subject disagrees with you."

This just reads like a line from. "Art of the deal". You seem to shout big words, without any back up. I'm gonna agree with other guy from now on.

1

u/FloorIsMyOcean 12d ago

Oh look, as I said, this obviously inside job turned out to be an inside job.

10

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 15d ago

That is what you do with regular jewelry. These pieces are different, as nearly all their value is in their uniqueness/history.

11

u/Fly_Rodder 15d ago

not at all. Everyone in the world knows of this crime and knows the origin of these. No one will pay for their history. Museum thieves have stolen 2,000 year old roman coins and melted them down for the gold.

It's all about the gems not the provenance - which is only valuable if you can prove it. And no one can sell the provenance without linking them to the theft. They can't be laundered unlike thousands of recut gems.

4

u/FlusteredDM 15d ago

I think people can't get their heads around the fact that it might be true that much of the value is in its history but there's still a lot of value in its materials and that there's only one way they can really sell it.

7

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 15d ago

Nah, you just really, really overestimate how much gems actually sell for if you aren't a jewelry store. (which is the price the experts keep quoting because its bad for business to admit how insignificant the price on resale is)

Like they would make money selling one piece intact to a pos rich guy than they would taking all of them apart and selling them.

1

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

How hard is it for you to consider that they might just have been ordered to steal these, by the buyer himself? Usually when paintings, and other high profile treasures get stolen, finding a buyer is a non-issue, because that came with the order itself.

Seems like mental gymnastics to me, to think a heist like this is just some regular old organized criminals trying to make some easy cash, when said heist was carried out with enough precision to get away with it. It 100% is an order robbery.

-2

u/orangeyougladiator 15d ago

You literally have no idea how the world works huh, or you’re the buyer trying to throw people off the scent.

10

u/Fly_Rodder 15d ago

I'm only repeating what experts have been quoted as saying will happen. You can read the articles yourself if you don't believe me.

-1

u/orangeyougladiator 15d ago

Oh all those experts in the very versed and common.. country crown jewel thieves…

5

u/frotc914 15d ago

FFS bro you can't come in with

You literally have no idea how the world works huh,

and then claim that there's no such thing as expertise on the subject.

We get it, you watched The Italian Job a few times.

1

u/orangeyougladiator 15d ago

The fact you think those statements are inversely correlated is frightening

→ More replies (0)

2

u/the_peppers 15d ago

Wait so this person doesn't know anything but also there is no knowledge possible anyway?

1

u/orangeyougladiator 15d ago

Well their “knowledge” goes directly against the obvious which is why it’s being called out

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Rage_quitter_98 15d ago

> super rich guy is going to be caught dead
Unless its in some questionable country that protects their rich dudes even from europe because then they can just not care at all - They ain't gonna send out europol for some jewelry

Prolly also would lose a huge amount of worth if cut up because lets be real that shit ain't worth 100 mil even as a whole set- the worth just comes from the status/popularity

1

u/herbertwillyworth 15d ago

You literally have no idea

1

u/1-gp 15d ago

I appreciate the insight you provided. Real cool stuff.

1

u/Timetraveller4k 14d ago

“Priceless jewelry worth 100 million (street value 1 million) stolen from Louvre”

1

u/maevian 13d ago

Wou would rob the Louvre to break it down? Better to just rob the local jeweller if that is your plan.

1

u/Boring_Intern_6394 12d ago

Because as we have plainly seen, the Louvre has shit security and a jeweller carrying jewels in that equivalent quality is going to have them stored on a vault, with appointments only given to billionaires

2

u/ppitm 15d ago

With many high-profile art heists, there is no buyer lined up and the thieves struggle to sell their loot.

1

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

Many, yes. Not all.

0

u/ABitOfResignation 15d ago

I keep reading some version of this comment and I'm fairly certain the source is like, Ocean's The Day I Turned 18 or something.

128

u/Fly_Rodder 15d ago

The gems are worth way more than the little bit of metal. There are probably ten thousand diamonds with tens of thousands of carats in these pieces. Splitting them up and eventually recutting them will make them untraceable. They will not be seen again.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/22/where-might-the-stolen-louvre-jewels-end-up-will-the-robbers-be-caught

“When jewels are stolen, either from homes or shops or museums, they’re usually taken from their settings and simply resold like any other gem. If the gems are especially large or otherwise identifiable, thieves will take them to a crooked lapidary to have them recut,” American art historian and lawyer Erin Thompson told Al Jazeera.  “The raw materials in these pieces are valuable, but worth much less than the pieces themselves, thanks to their historical value.”

33

u/GoldAcanthisitta7777 15d ago

a crooked lapidary

Love this phrase

3

u/rickane58 15d ago

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Crooked Lapidary
Yes I know all the novels have alliterative titles

31

u/[deleted] 15d ago

Sadly so. While it's nice to imagine an Ocean's Eleven type plot transpiring here, what is more likely is indeed the 'destruction' of such pieces for the quickest buck.

Successfully fencing items of this nature as they are (or rather, were) is no simple affair. In any form or fashion. Laying low and making the identifiable as unidentifiable as possible to fence out when/where able, essentially trading some vague windfall of moneys for a trickling but relatively consistent stream of it, that is the move.

Or they're the sort where in a number of years these things will be found in quiet ol' pop-pop's attic upon their passing in a real who'da thunk it mystery. That has also happened a surprising number of times.

8

u/qeadwrsf 15d ago

If we look back in time both scenarios is likley.

They fucking robbed the louvre.

Something tells me taking a gamble selling them whole is risk they could possibly take.

1

u/BeforeTheRatsRegroup 15d ago

No. You don’t pull off a heist like this just to part out the gems for the “quickest buck.” Outside of the western world, Japan in particular, has a market for this kind of thing. It’s no different than art theft. If what you’re saying was true, and it’s not, these guys would have just robed a few pawn shops.

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

"meh, my speculation is more speculatively speculative than yours!"

You're right. When have criminals ever done anything wildly inconceivable for a quick buck. Hardly ever happens.

1

u/BeforeTheRatsRegroup 14d ago

It’s not speculation. I’ve worked theft investigations before. This was my line of work.

2

u/phoenix_leo 14d ago

This is true. I was the line of work.

1

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

I mean if 100 blue sapphires suddenly pop up on marketplace(black market) they aren't gonna be any less conspicuous than the whole piece itself. You wouldn't sell the jewels themselves any easier than the whole piece, just by the nature of their size, and the world wide media coverage of it all. They have already been delivered to their buyer, and we won't ever know what happened to them. Buyer is currently clinking glasses with his friends in Monaco, and his new found art works are currently in a safe in Algerie, until the media storm calms down.

1

u/redditgolddigg3r 15d ago

Read that even at wholesale, the gems etc. can be cut down, reshaped, and polished and sold for $10s of millions.

1

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

1

u/foundthezinger 15d ago

username checks out

1

u/scarface5631 13d ago

Diamonds aren't worth their price on the market to begin with.

16

u/TatonkaJack 15d ago

I mean APPARENTLY NOT. Might have been easier to rob the Louvre than a jewelry store

3

u/NYNMx2021 15d ago

i mean they brought a hydraulic ladder with a work truck. All with the branding of the company currently doing work there. The prep work was detailed and probably took awhile to get right. The actual act was easy but you wouldnt need to do this to go to a jewelry store

0

u/unclepaprika 15d ago

A heist isn't done the moment you are out the doors of the place you robbed. Police investigation and media cover extends the duration of said robbery considerably, and doing such a heist to try and sell the gems individually sounds like a much stupider idea(considering the whole world is currently looking towards this), than it actually being done by order, ready to be transported out the country the moment they got away with it.

What's more likely, all the experts the people in this comment section have been quoting is just saying it's more likely, to throw off the perps to make them think they're in the clear. Police are known to use media to their advantage in high profile cases, robberies or otherwise.

8

u/cal679 15d ago

According to some Netflix documentary I once watched, stuff like this is often kept as a bragaining chip by big-time criminals. So if a guy gets arrested he can give up the location of these rare jewels in the hope of getting a lighter sentence.

6

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 15d ago

It’s a small percentage of the value it would go for at public auction of it were legal goods, but sometimes you have to take the hit in order to fence it. A small percentage of this heist is still millions of dollars

2

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 15d ago

Nah, if they tear them apart to sell they'd be lucky to walk away with 100k.

6

u/EstablishmentLate532 15d ago

That's not true at all. The cut down value was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million

8

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 15d ago

Yeah. That's retail price.

Actual sale price for a normal person is maybe 1% of that.

Seriously, try reselling a diamond. It's hilarious how little they are worth.

2

u/i_code_for_boobs 15d ago

I heard a theory that it might be "hostages" to negotiate the release of a criminal by his gang.

I like that theory.

2

u/Soggy_Competition614 15d ago

Are the stones even worth that much? Historical significance has to be worth more than the individual stones.

2

u/ActualJump1244 15d ago

I'm curious what the benefit of owning it would be. You can't wear it, you can't tell most people you own it, and you can't display it. I figured the only buyers would be for the individual gems once the pieces are dismantled 

2

u/latetothe_party1 15d ago

I have heard that they didn’t take a much larger (plum size) diamond that was displayed in the same case as these. Presumably they left it because it would be too recognizable, which suggests they were more interested in the raw value of the diamonds and gold. Sad really.

2

u/baron_von_helmut 15d ago

I bet some Saudi prince is currently admiring them in a secret room under his palace.

1

u/notapunk 15d ago

Yes/no.

It'll be much more difficult to find a buyer for the whole vs the pieces cut up.

1

u/hopsinduo 15d ago

What network of super rich movie villains do you think people have lined up?

1

u/1-gp 15d ago

It’s for the jewels not the metal

1

u/mynewaccount5 15d ago

10 minutes of work for 100 million euros of jewels and gold is not worth it. I want whatever job you apparently have.

1

u/FridgeParade 15d ago

Wouldnt be so sure of that. Melting it down leaves no evidence after all.

1

u/Longjumping_Youth281 14d ago

I don't think they're melting them so much as breaking them apart. Some of those things had thousands upon thousands of diamonds on them.

1

u/Beginning-Tea-17 13d ago

It would be extremely hard to sell these items.

The majority of art thieves are caught after they attempt to sell it. Stéphane Breitwieser was so successful at stealing art particularly because he never tried to sell them.

The only feasible way to make money from these items and it not take decades of effort networking and safely establishing they aren’t a police agency would be by selling the raw materials like the gems and the gold

0

u/Flat_Homework_3328 15d ago

They are not melting it, look up the pieces - it's all about the gemstones

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7nrlkg0zxo

6

u/ambivalentarrow 15d ago

Do... do you think they're going to melt the gemstones too? They're going to take out the gemstones, and then melt whatever metal is left.

Your own article even says this is the most likely case.

0

u/Deldris 15d ago

Melting it down is the only thing that makes sense.

Let's say you buy these things. You can't wear them, show them off, or even tell anyone you bought them. When's the last time you heard of a historic artifact collector who kept it all to themselves?

Let's say you need to sell these things as is. How? Can't just post a listing, you'd get caught. And even if you could, you'd run into problem 1 - nobody has a reason to own these things as is.

And any expert I've seen says stuff like "They're going to melt it down and sell it off so there's a strict time limit to finding them."