The Paris prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into organized theft and criminal conspiracy to commit crimes, a source within the office told NBC News.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said in X that “no injuries were reported.”
“I am at the scene along with museum staff and police. Investigations are ongoing,” he said.
The museum’s official X account said the Louvre would be closed for the rest of the day “for exceptional reasons.”
The robbery is just the latest in a wave of robberies hitting cultural institutions across France.
Thieves broke into the National Museum of Natural History in Paris last month and made off with samples of raw gold valued at about $700,000, authorities said.
The Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, houses millennia of civilization’s greatest treasures. Its most famous work of art is Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” a 16th-century portrait depicting an Italian noblewoman with a mysterious smile.
It is rare that the Louvre closes its doors.
It has happened during war, during the Covid-19 pandemic and in a handful of strikes.
The museum was closed in June by its own striking staff, who said the facility was crumbling under the weight of mass tourism.
The Associated Press contributed.
