After Louvre Jewel Heist, Robberies Continue at French Museums
A spate of robberies, many in small towns, has raised questions about how to secure the country’s treasures.
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It’s Not Just the Louvre. Museums Across France Are Ripe Targets for Thieves.
A spate of robberies, many in small towns, has raised questions about how to secure the country’s treasures.
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· 6:59 min
Sept. 13, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET
When thieves broke into a museum on the French Riviera last Tuesday and made off with two paintings by the Impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir, President Emmanuel Macron had just been a few miles away presiding over a conference about how to save the art of filmmaking.
The robbery, the latest in a string of thefts since the sensational heist of crown jewels at the Louvre last October, suggested that France has a bigger challenge protecting its artistic treasures.
Chinese porcelain, Huguenot crosses, gold and silver coins, Art Nouveau jewelry pieces, a jersey worn by the soccer star Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup — all have been purloined from museums, large and small, across the country.
The spate of thievery even extends to churches: People have stolen chalices, communion plates and other holy relics. Museum workers, the police and government officials are rattled. They worry about how to protect France’s cultural patrimony in an era of increasingly violent criminal gangs, some of whom have broken into museums in broad daylight.
“There is a kind of collective psychosis that is being created,” said Théo Caviezel, the mayor of Langres, a small town in eastern France. A day after the heist at the Louvre, thieves broke into a museum there dedicated to the French philosopher Denis Diderot, and stole a collection of gold and silver coins.
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Father Johan Michel at his home in Laon, holding an object he is keeping there for safekeeping since people have stolen chalices, communion plates and other holy relics from churches.Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times
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Originally published by nytimes.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Glamour Canada.
