France 24:

Robbers wielding power tools broke into the Louvre on Sunday and made off with priceless jewels from the world-renowned museum, taking just seven minutes for the broad-daylight heist, sources and officials said.

When I saw this story, I immediately thought about The Thomas Crown Affair, or an episode of BBC’s Hustle.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati:

“We saw some footage: they don’t target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave. No violence, very professional,” she said on TF1.

Gentlemen robbers? Check.

Thomas Adamson, AP News:

A lift — which officials say the thieves brought and which was later removed — stood against the Seine-facing façade, their entry route and, observers said, a revealing weakness: that such machinery could be brought to a palace-museum unchecked. […]

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the crew entered from outside using a basket lift via the riverfront facade to reach the hall with the 23-item royal collection.

Ingenious entrance and escape? Check.

Catherine Porter and Aurelien Breeden, New York Times (gift link):

There they smashed two cases, sounding more alarms, and snatched eight precious objects, including a royal sapphire necklace, a royal emerald necklace and its matching earrings, and a diadem worn by Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, France’s 19th-century ruler.

Ariel Weil, mayor of central Paris (home of the Louvre):

Not only did it take place in broad daylight, while the museum was open, Mr. Weil pointed out, but the thieves walked off with some of the nation’s crown jewels.

“Those are the most valuable thing — not just from a material point of view, but from a symbolic one,” he said in an interview.

Liberating high value, symbolically important items? Check.

I wondered why thieves would bother to steal such well-known artifacts; surely there’s no one foolish enough to buy them—except, perhaps, a centibillionaire collector with an underground museum. But, notes French paper Le Parisien (machine-translated):

One of the questions that arises at the moment is whether the jewels have already been melted to resell the gold, as was most certainly the case a month ago with the gold nuggets stolen from the Natural History Museum. “The risk is that some diamonds can be sold at retail, which would make the reconstitution of jewelry very difficult,” explains a source close to the investigation.

Ugh. I admit, it never occurred to me that the jewelry would be decomposed and sold as “scrap.” I presumed they were stolen because they were renowned artifacts, desirable for their history and beauty, and would be secretly admired in the private collection of that hypothetical billionaire—not because they’re made of diamonds and gold.

How pedestrian.