In a brazen daylight heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris, thieves made off with eight priceless pieces of jewelry, including a tiara worn by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, and the Marie-Louise necklace. The stolen items, valued at €88 million (£76m; $102m), were part of France’s historical heritage, with some pieces gifted by Napoleon and Napoleon III to their wives. The robbery, which took less than eight minutes, occurred shortly after the museum opened on Sunday morning. Thieves, armed with power tools, accessed the Galerie d’Apollon via a balcony near the River Seine, cutting through a glass window and threatening guards to evacuate the building. Despite attempts to set fire to their escape vehicle, the thieves fled on scooters. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the robbery as an attack on France’s heritage. Security measures at the Louvre have since been tightened, with a preliminary report revealing significant lapses, including the absence of CCTV in one-third of the museum’s rooms and a non-functional alarm system. Authorities believe the thieves were highly organized professionals, and experts fear the stolen jewels may already have been dismantled and smuggled out of the country.