Detectives investigating the spectacular art heist at the Louvre in Paris last October are following a new lead pointing to Belgium.
Belgian police are said to have found photos on the mobile phones of several arrested thieves showing the interior of the Louvre and, in particular, the Galerie d’Apollon, where the theft took place.
The new lead was reported by the magazine Paris Match and the newspaper Le Parisien on Monday, citing judicial sources.
France and Belgium are said to have launched a joint investigation. The Paris public prosecutor’s office neither confirmed nor denied the new investigation.
The photos were discovered on the mobile phones of suspects from Eastern Europe who specialize in freight theft, the newspapers reported.
Judicial sources say the investigation is intended to clarify whether there is a link between the thieves arrested in Belgium and the four suspects now in custody in France.
They are alleged to have managed to break into the Louvre on October 19, 2025 to steal crown jewels worth an estimated €88 million ($102 million). There is still no trace of the missing jewellery.
The incident made international headlines and sparked a debate about the museum’s security and the resignation of the museum director at the time.
The masked men had parked a lorry equipped with a cherry picker next to the museum. While two of the perpetrators waited on the street on scooters, the other two used the cherry picker to reach a first-floor balcony and from there entered the museum through a window. The whole heist lasted only a few minutes.
