Members of the Paris Holmes Society (Cercle Holmesien de Paris), Laurence Deloision, dressed like Arsène Lupin (left), and Thierry Gilibert, dressed like Sherlock Holmes, on Saturday stage the theft by the facade and the window the place thieves entered the Louvre final Sunday.
Thomas Padilla/AP
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Thomas Padilla/AP
PARIS — It was the heist heard world wide. So naturally, it was solely a matter of hours earlier than it transitioned into memes seen across the web.
4 masked thieves. 9 “priceless” items. All stolen in less than seven minutes, from the world’s most well-known museum. The Oct. 19 daylight theft on the Louvre has already been in comparison with a Dan Brown novel or the most recent installment in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movie franchise.
Now it is one thing else fully — web tradition’s latest obsession. From manufacturers to influencers to actors with initiatives to advertise (this is you, George Clooney), the Louvre heist has develop into the most recent template for going viral.
Authorities, in the meantime, are nonetheless searching for solutions. French police say the investigation continues, with about 100 folks engaged on the case. Investigators say they’ve collected greater than 150 hint samples — including DNA and fingerprints left on gear deserted on the scene — which are actually being analyzed by forensic consultants in Paris.
One twist got here earlier this week when Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-gold encrusted crown — one of many stolen objects — was discovered broken close to the scene, apparently dropped or deserted throughout the thieves’ escape.
Eight different jewels — all relics of France’s imperial historical past — stay lacking. The estimated worth of the objects is $102 million (88 million euros), although France’s inside ministry described the jewels as “priceless.” France’s tradition minister referred to as the theft a “humiliation.” The museum’s director admitted that the heist “was not inevitable,” acknowledging the failure of its safety.
The Louvre’s safety programs are anticipated to face extra scrutiny within the coming weeks, significantly as questions develop concerning the lack of safety cameras within the museum’s Apollo Gallery, the place the theft passed off.
Turning crime into content material
The thieves entered the second-floor gallery by way of a window utilizing an electrical raise — which additionally they used to scurry again right down to floor stage earlier than leaping on scooters towards the closest freeway.
Law enforcement officials work by a basket raise utilized by thieves Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025 on the Louvre museum in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
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Thibault Camus/AP
On Friday, Böcker, the German equipment firm that made the raise entered the dialog, releasing a cheeky post that includes an advert throughout its social media pages. The advert encompasses a photograph of its ladder propped towards the Louvre’s façade with the caption, “When you’re in a rush, Böcker Agilo carries as much as 400 kg of treasures at 42 m per minute — as quiet as a whisper.”
It was half advert, half wink. Abruptly, the family-run firm’s longtime slogan “my technique to the highest” has gained new that means.
They weren’t alone. IKEA Switzerland posted its own tongue-in-cheek ad selling a glass-dome show case. The caption learn: “Will not shield your crown jewels both. However it can give them the appropriate highlight.”
Others on TikTok and Instagram have turned the Louvre heist into a Halloween costume: suppose black jumpsuits, leather-based gloves, glossy sun shades, and glittering imitation jewels.
“Heists are so again!” the fashion influencer @clothesfordinner declared
“How good to examine a heist slightly than a bloodbath”
A part of the fascination comes from the fantasy the story invitations.
“How thrilling, upon listening to the information, to place oneself within the footwear of the thieves, and picture making off with the diamonds scot-free,” The Atlantic workers author Caity Weaver wrote in a recent piece chronicling the general public’s obsession with the heist.
Or to place the obsession much more merely: “How good to examine a heist slightly than a bloodbath.”
The stolen trinkets, Weaver writes, “have garnered much more consideration now than they’d have had they remained on view on the Louvre for five,000 years.”
George Clooney arrives on the AFI Fest premiere of the movie “Jay Kelly” on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at TCL Chinese language Theatre in Los Angeles.
Chris Pizzello/Invision by way of AP
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Chris Pizzello/Invision by way of AP
Maybe she’s onto one thing. And maybe that is why Hollywood, for its half, could not resist the second, both.
George Clooney — who performs grasp thief Danny Ocean within the Ocean’s franchise — joked at a film premiere final week, “They appear to have completed a reasonably good job of getting away with it … I used to be very pleased with these guys.”
Requested whether or not the heist would possibly encourage the upcoming Ocean’s 14 film, Clooney quipped, “I feel we should always rob the Louvre.”
After which there’s the dapper man the web has determined is on the case.
After the theft, an Related Press photographer captured a younger wanting well-dressed passerby close to the Louvre’s gates — coat, tie, and fedora — as police sealed off the museum.
On-line, he was immediately dubbed “a extra dashing model of the famed Inspector Clouseau” from the Pink Panther franchise, supposedly a suave detective investigating the theft.
Law enforcement officials block an entry to the Louvre museum after a theft Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.
Thibault Camus/AP
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Thibault Camus/AP
The AP photographer, Thibault Camus, later stated the person was merely strolling previous. “He appeared in entrance of me, I noticed him, I took the photograph,” Camus says. “He handed by and left.”
Nonetheless, the picture took off, racking up thousands and thousands of views and a flood of memes.
Even the Paris prosecutor’s workplace appeared to play alongside. In an e mail to AP asking if the thriller man was part of the official investigation, officers replied with a wink: “We might slightly hold the thriller alive ;).”
