The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery welcomed visitors again on Wednesday, nine months after thieves smashed their way in and made off with crown jewels worth roughly $102 million.
The gallery reopened without any jewelry on display, in a heist that exposed serious security gaps at the world’s most-visited museum.
Museum director Christophe Leribault announced that the remaining pieces from France’s crown jewel collection will not return to the Apollo Gallery at all.
Instead, the room has been restored to its original purpose as a 17th-century ceremonial space, while the jewels themselves will be kept in a windowless vault elsewhere in the museum.
The gallery, built under a young Louis XIV, is considered one of the Louvre’s most celebrated historic interiors and famously inspired the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
Leribault framed the empty-handed reopening as a chance to appreciate the room’s architecture, including its Greek-themed frescoes honoring the sun god Apollo and lavish gilded detailing, rather than to focus on gems. France’s Culture Minister, Catherine Pegard, also attended the ceremony, marking the occasion with Leribault.
The theft itself remains a striking case study in security failure. On October 19, 2025, thieves used a basket lift and an angle grinder to cut through a first-floor window before smashing display cases and fleeing.
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Among the items taken were jewelry belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, and a sapphire tiara, necklace and earrings once owned by Queen Marie-Amélie, France’s last queen, along with an emerald necklace studded with more than 1,000 diamonds.
Nine months on, the case is still unresolved. Seven of the stolen crown jewels remain missing, and the investigation into the alleged mastermind behind the plot is ongoing.
Two suspects have reportedly claimed the robbery was orchestrated by an unnamed third party who was unhappy with how the job was carried out.
In the aftermath, French authorities moved to tighten security across the museum. The Louvre has added new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems since the heist.
Leribault, who took over as director after his predecessor resigned in the wake of the robbery, is now overseeing that broader security overhaul.
For now, visitors can once again admire the Apollo Gallery’s ornate ceilings and sculpture — just not the jewels that once glittered beneath them.
As Culture Minister Pegard put it, the robbery had been a moment of shock felt well beyond France’s borders, and the empty display cases now stand as a quiet reminder of how close a national treasure came to being lost for good.
