"It is already, in a small way, Paris's newest tourist attraction. And on our right, boomed the guide on the bateau mouche tour boat heading up the Seine, the Louvre and the window thieves smashed to steal France's crown jewels. The world's most visited museum reopened on Wednesday for the first time since a gang of four men broke into its Apollo gallery on Sunday, making off with 88m (76m) of Napoleonic jewellery in France's most dramatic heist in decades."
"Long queues snaked around the Cour Napoleon, the museum's vast main courtyard, and the glass pyramid that serves as its entrance, as visitors waited patiently for their turn to tour 33,000 sculptures, objets d'art, paintings and drawings. Outside, however, across the busy Quai Francois Mitterrand from the museum's grand facade, a smaller but more animated crowd had gathered instead on the pavement beside the river, staring up at a tall window partly hidden behind black drapes. People came to the Quai Francois Mitterrand to see where the criminals entered and escaped through a window."
"Two of the thieves, wearing hi-vis vests as if they were workmen, used an extendable ladder and furniture lift parked on the street to break in through the window, and disc-cutters to smash two display cases containing the jewellery. They made off on the back of two waiting motorbikes with eight pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diamond-studded diadem that once belonged to the empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III."
The Louvre reopened to visitors after four men broke into its Apollo gallery and stole 88m (76m) of Napoleonic jewellery. Long queues formed around the Cour Napoleon and the glass pyramid as tourists toured 33,000 sculptures, objets d'art, paintings and drawings. A crowd gathered on Quai Francois Mitterrand to stare at a tall, partly draped window used by the thieves. Two men in hi‑vis vests used an extendable ladder, a furniture lift and disc‑cutters to smash two display cases. The thieves escaped on two motorbikes with eight pieces, including an emerald‑and‑diamond necklace and a diamond‑studded diadem.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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