Millions of dollars worth of jewelery was stolen from a French museum in a daring early morning raid

Robbers stole millions of dollars' worth of jewelry from French glassmaker Lalique's museum in a daring early-morning raid on Sunday, just months after the spectacular looting of the Louvre in Paris.

A group of masked robbers broke into a museum in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France around 5:30 a.m., forced open the door before heading to the jewelry room and smashing six cases, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

“Approximately twenty pieces of jewelry were stolen. The loss is currently being assessed but it could be a few million euros, possibly up to four million (over $4.5 million),” said the source.

Another source close to the investigation said the stolen jewelry was crystal, without precious stones, which would not melt.

The museum said on its website that it would be closed for several days due to the break-in.

“The alarm went off, but when the security company finished checking, it was the cleaning lady who arrived first at the scene and called the police,” said the first source of the investigation.

CCTV footage is currently being examined.

The museum, dedicated to Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry and glassmaker Rene Lalique, opened in 2011 next to the company's factory.

It houses more than 650 “unique works” including Art Nouveau jewelry, Art Deco glass and modern crystal, according to the museum's website.

“Well here are” the suspects

The mayor of Wingen-sur-Moder, a town of 1,500 people about 37 miles northwest of Strasbourg, told local newspaper Les Dernieres nouvelles d'Alsace (DNA) that he was outraged by the break-in.

“All the alarms went off, as they should. And then with the security company, apparently, there was a big failure on their part: they didn't intervene quickly, they didn't notify the gendarmes,” said Christian Dorschner.

“They certainly had a lot of experience to do this work in that way; they must be … experts,” the mayor also told DNA.

The Lalique museum was seen as a “sensitive” place, receiving special attention after a surprising daylight robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris last October, which put security in French museums and galleries.

Thieves made off with $102 million worth of jewelry, including the old French crown jewels, from the Louvre in a raid that lasted less than eight minutes.

The suspected thieves have been arrested and charged, but no jewelry has been found except for a crown that was discarded when the group fled.

A security study found that 35% of the rooms in the Denon Wing, where the stolen jewelry was displayed, were not monitored by security cameras, according to Radio France. The jewels were also not privately insured, in accordance with French law.

Museums directed to France

French museums have experienced a spate of burglaries in recent months.

Last October, a woman was arrested and charged with stealing gold from the Natural History Museum in Paris.

In September, thieves snatched three ceramics worth millions of dollars and considered national treasures during a robbery at the Adrien Dubouche National Museum in Limoges in central France.

In November 2024, four men with axes and baseball bats smashed the display cases in broad daylight at the Cognacq-Jay museum in Paris, starting with several 18th-century works. That theft led to an insurance payout of more than $4 million from the Royal Collection Trust, BBC News reported.

The next day, several million dollars' worth of jewelry was stolen during an armed robbery at a museum in Saone-et-Loire in central France.