• Newly released surveillance footage shows how masked thieves broke into the Louvre last October, making away with France’s crown jewels.
• The footage surfaces as the Louvre faces staff strikes, closures, and union demands targeting pay, conditions, and leadership.
• Police have yet to locate the missing jewels, deepening scrutiny of director Laurence des Cars’ troubled tenure.

Surveillance footage of the Louvre Museum heist has been made public for the first time. Two thieves can be seen forcing entry through the windows of the gallery and slicing open display cases to steal France’s crown jewels.

The spectacular break-in last October put the Louvre under intense global scrutiny, and this latest insight into those disastrous events comes as the embattled museum faces its third staff strike in just over a month. The Louvre remained closed to the public yesterday, January 19, as its trade unions continue to push for better pay and working conditions. Union leaders have also called for the resignation of Louvre’s director Laurence des Cars, who is accused of failing to address urgent infrastructural issue with her ambitious $820 million revamp of the museum.

The exact moment, on the morning of October 19, that a gang of thieves entered the Louvre’s Apollo gallery and made off with nine historic treasures was broadcast on public French TV on January 18. The two perpetrators can be seen wearing balaclavas and using disc cutters to slice open display cases. The theft takes place under the watch of staff members who were not able to intervene, instead prioritizing the safe evacuation of museum visitors. No security guards were at the scene.

So far, police have used DNA evidence to identify five suspects in the heist, of which four have been arrested. Though the imperial jewels have not yet been recovered, French authorities announced a major breakthrough last week. Investigators have traced the thieves movements to an underground parking garage where the jewels were temporarily stashed, with surveillance footage providing the last known sighting of the missing trove.

The staff strike initiated on Monday is the second this month and the third since December 15, when an initial strike lasting four days began. It was resumed on January 5, with the support of all 350 museum employees. The latest strike staged on Monday was again the result of a unanimous vote. The trade unions’ demand that staff wages align with those at other national museums in France is due to be discussed at the culture ministry next Thursday, January 29.

Since December 15, the Louvre has been forced to close due to strikes on three days. On six more occasions it remained open only for half days with restricted access to the collection. The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum and its management has estimated that these forced closures have resulted in losses of “at least” €1 million ($1.2 million), according to France24.

An information panel at the Louvre Museum notifying of the museum’s closure due a strike on January 12, 2026. Photo: Martin Lelievre / AFP via Getty Images.

It’s not just pay, however, that is frustrating Louvre staff. Des Cars’ leadership style and her alleged failure to address urgent maintenance issues at the museum have also come under fire from union leaders.

“If we get the pay but continue with this governance model, we won’t be out of the woods,” Valerie Baud of the CFDT union told France24. 

Last year, Fresh president Emmanuel Macron responded to pressure from des Cars by announcing a mammoth €700 million ($820 million) renovation of the Louvre dubbed the “Nouvelle Renaissance.” The project would include a new entrance—estimated to cost €666 million ($780 million)—and new interior spaces, including a separate room for the Mona Lisa. 

This plan was described as “unrealistic” in a joint statement by the Louvre’s trade unions, which instead have called on des Cars to “focus on the technical works” needed to protect the museum building and its collections. The striking staffers have echoed mounting calls for des Cars to resign.

Des Cars, who joined the Louvre as its first female director in 2021, will have to fight to restore her reputation. A recent assessment of her predicament in Airmail by Elaine Sciolino, whose book about the Louvre was published last year, described a leader who is overwhelmed by the crises she faces and lacks the charms that might win around her adversaries.

Of noble birth, des Cars has been accused by some employees of a haughty refusal to greet them in passing. Though she vehemently denied this accusation, she apparently told Sciolino just weeks after October’s heist that she was “not into opération séduction” as a means to win back public favor. Rather, her approach is practical, if impersonal. “Each visit I make in the galleries should be useful. There is generally a problem that must be solved, a decision that must be made,” she said, offering a laundry list of the museum’s many shortcomings. “There’s no user’s manual” to navigate these issues, she added. “There’s no parachute.”