This isn't the Louvre's first high-profile heist. Here's a history of earlier thefts
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The Louvre Museum in Paris is closed after masked thieves stole priceless jewels in what officials have described as a seven-minute heist in broad daylight.
Shortly after the museum opened on Sunday morning, two bandits used a lift on a truck to break into its Galerie d'Apollon, which houses the French crown jewels and other treasures, through a second-floor window. That's according to the Paris prosecutor's office, which is looking for four male suspects.
The thieves smashed display cases, stealing what a Louvre spokesperson described as eight items of "inestimable cultural and historical value." They then fled toward a nearby highway on high-powered scooters. Two pieces of jewelry — including the crown of Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III — were found near the museum afterward.
The heist deals a huge blow to one of the most popular museums in the world, which houses valuable works like Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and has drawn some 9 million visitors in recent years.
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But it's not a first. Thieves have raided the Louvre multiple times over the decades — and once managed to snatch Mona Lisa herself right off
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