Thieves steal priceless French crown jewels from Louvre museum in Paris

Thieves wielding power tools robbed the Louvre in broad daylight on Sunday, taking just four minutes to grab some of France’s priceless crown jewels, but dropping a gem-encrusted crown as they fled, officials and sources said.

Authorities recovered the 19th-century crown – damaged – near the museum, but the culprits were still at large and the target of a manhunt.

The spectacular robbery, one of several to target French museums in recent months, forced the closure for the rest of the day of the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum and home to the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Armed soldiers patrolled around the famed glass pyramid entrance, while evacuated visitors, tourists and passers-by were kept at a distance behind police tape.

It was “like a Hollywood movie”, one American tourist, Talia Ocampo, told Agence France-Presse.

It was “crazy” and “something we won’t forget – we could not go to the Louvre because there was a robbery”, she said.

The robbers used a powered, extendable ladder of the sort used to hoist furniture into buildings to get into a gilded gallery housing the crown jewels, sources and officials said.