AI Summary
5 min readHeist at the Louvre, Episode 2: Hundred-Million-Dollar Questions
The morning of October 19, 2025, two thieves entered the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre through a window, used angle grinders to cut through display cases, and stuffed jewels worth an estimated $100 million into a pouch. The entire crime took minutes. By the time police arrived, the thieves were gone on motorbikes, leaving behind angle grinders, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, a glove, and a helmet — along with 150 samples of DNA and fingerprints. But the easy part of the investigation, it turned out, was finding out who the thieves were. The harder part was understanding how a theft of this scale could happen at the most famous museum in the world.
A Smash and Grab, Not a Masterpiece Heist
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:08) **Introduction and Setting the Scene** - James Longman arrives at the deserted Louvre the morning after the heist and describes the eerie atmosphere.
- 2 (03:54) **A Former FBI Art Crime Expert Weighs In** - Tim Carpenter, former head of the FBI's Art Crime Unit, dismisses the idea that this was a sophisticated "heist of the century."
- 3 (06:10) **The Investigation Begins: Physical and Digital Clues** - Investigators gather a wealth of evidence from the crime scene and begin tracing the thieves' movements.
- 4 (09:24) **Turning the Lens Inward: Louvre Security Failures** - As the police investigation progresses, intense scrutiny falls on the museum's own security lapses.
- 5 (11:27) **What Was Stolen? The "Bling Bling" Jewels** - Elaine Chalino, former Paris bureau chief of the New York Times, describes the stolen items and their historical context.
- 6 (13:32) **Heist Number One: The Drunken Mistake** - Longman begins a historical overview of previous Louvre heists, starting with the 1792 theft of the French Crown Jewels.
- 7 (16:21) **The Great Crown Jewel Auction and the Louvre's Collection** - After the Revolution, France sold off many royal jewels, with Charles Tiffany buying over a third of them.
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Show Notes
In episode two of Heist at the Louvre, the investigation begins. Police find crucial evidence — and the Louvre finds itself under scrutiny.
Heist at the Louvre will be published right here in the 20/20 podcast weekly on Fridays -- or you can get new episodes four days early early when you follow the show for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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