#crown-jewels

#crown-jewels

The daylight heist about 30 minutes after the Paris museum opened on Sunday, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory and came as staff complained that swelling crowds and a lack of staff were straining security. The theft unfolded just 270 yards (810ft) from the Mona Lisa, in what French culture minister Rachida Dati described as a professional "four-minute operation". One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugenie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. It was reportedly recovered broken.