The Louvre began as a fortress in the late 12th century, constructed to defend the French capital from English invasions. However, despite the iconic museum initially being built to safeguard and fortify the area, thieves have managed to penetrate its defenses on multiple occasions and abscond with invaluable works of art.
Among these historical heists, the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous, elevating the painting to a household name. Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman, was ultimately apprehended 28 months later while attempting to sell the artwork, which was subsequently returned to the Louvre in 1914.
It remains uncertain whether the most recent robbery at the museum, during which a group of thieves stole French jewels of “inestimable value,” will culminate in a similar recovery. The previous significant incident has not: nearly 25 years after a thief made off with Jean Baptiste Camille Corot’s Le Chemin de Sèvres in 1998, the 19th-century landscape painting still has not been located.
This particular theft marked the second at the Louvre that year. Months after an artwork was stolen in January 1998, an unknown individual removed Corot’s small painting, measuring approximately 13 by 19 inches, from its frame in broad daylight on May 3. While the police sealed museum exits for nearly three hours to search visitors present that Sunday, the thief eluded capture.
Investigators searched for fingerprints on the frame and glass that remained behind. At the time, authorities indicated that the artwork’s modest size facilitated its concealment. They theorized that the painting, valued at an estimated $1.3 million, was eventually bartered or sold on the black market.
Overall, the 1990s represented a crucial period for the museum. Years before the Corot painting was stolen, in July 1990, museum staffers announced that a dozen Egyptian artifacts had been missing for multiple days, prompting Michel Laclotte, then the Louvre’s director, to declare a crisis in France, generating widespread concern. Other French museums reportedly encountered similar robberies.
Laclotte stated that the Louvre would increase its security budget in 1991 by 10 million francs. However, years later, in 1998, a museum spokesperson revealed that a lack of funding had prevented the Louvre from installing television surveillance cameras in all of its numerous corridors and rooms. The Corot painting, he noted, was situated in a room without cameras.
Nevertheless, the May 1998 theft spurred the museum to adopt stricter security protocols. And although the stolen landscape has not been recovered, the museum did experience decades without another heist—until this past Sunday.