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US tourists described the terrifying moment they narrowly came face-to-face with the brazen Louvre Museum robbers who escaped the world-famous Paris museum with irreplaceable treasures in broad daylight.
Curt Dale Clark, Artistic Director of the Maine State Music Theatre, said he and 28 others from the theatre group had only seen “five or six really fantastic pieces of art” on Sunday when they were about to “enter the room next door to the room where the robbery happened.”
Clark recalled that Louvre security guards suddenly began acting “horrible and rude” toward them, but didn’t understand what was happening since no one in the group spoke French.
Moments later, the presence of heavily armed officers made it clear something serious was unfolding.
“When we started seeing SWAT teams and military people, I was like, I think there’s something more going on here,” Clark told WMTW. “And so, we all turned and hightailed it.”
Unaware of the robbery, Clark said the group was worried there had been a terrorist attack.
The theatre group was then rushed down the stairs and into the lobby of the Louvre as more armed SWAT officers poured into the historic landmark.
He said the experience left the group shaken, but he was thankful no one was harmed.
“We did find everybody. We did get out of there, but it was almost instant action by the French police and the French military,” Clark recalled.
The masterminds behind the daring heist have not yet been identified.
More than 100 investigators are working to capture the four suspects who stole artefacts valued at roughly $102.1 million (88 million euros), Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told a French radio station Tuesday.
The four crafty criminals, posing as construction workers, used a construction lift to reach a second-floor window, cut through the glass with an angle grinder, and then entered the Galerie d’Apollon — stealing thousands of diamonds and other priceless jewels before fleeing on scooters.
Indiana couple Jacob and Holly Barker were inside the famed Galerie d’Apollon when the thieves entered the museum for their heist and heard the crew cut through the glass.
“It was terrifying. I mean, it’s just like the movies. So we knew at that point we needed to take action,” Jacob Barker told TODAY. “We didn’t know if there was one chainsaw-wielding robber behind that window, or if there were 100 mass terrorists, but we knew that we didn’t want to stick around to stick around to find out.”
Like Clark, the Barkers were ushered into the lobby until the tourists were allowed to leave.
“In the back of my head, I’m thinking it also could be a mass shooting situation or a terrorist attack. But again, there was this controlled chaos where no one was giving us any instruction,” Barker told the outlet.
The stolen items include a diamond and sapphire tiara that once belonged to Napoleon III’s wife, Queen Marie-Amelie, and Queen Hortense, the daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife, Josephine, according to the French Ministry of Culture.
A sapphire necklace and earrings from the collection are also missing, as well as an emerald necklace and earrings that belonged to Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife; a reliquary brooch, which is designed to hold a religious relic; and a tiara and bodice knot belonging to Empress Eugenie.
Investigators fear the culprits will destroy the priceless, uninsured diamonds by melting them down for resale — but Beccuau said they’ll never see anything near the gems’ actual value.
“The criminals won’t earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of unscrewing these jewels and melting them down,” she told the radio station.
“So we can perhaps hope that they’ll think about it and won’t destroy these jewels without reason.”
Beccuau said the investigation remains open, with forensic experts now conducting DNA analysis on items left behind at the scene.
