7 Minutes Is All It Takes

Have you ever wondered just how much you can accomplish in 7 minutes? Well it might just be more than you could ever imagine, like a crime that could either leave you endlessly wealthy or with a like sentence.

On October 19, 2025 at approximately 9:30am in Paris, France, 7 minutes was all it took for thieves to rob the Louvre of 8 pieces of historical crown jewels. Thieves entered the museum using a basket lift to place them in front of a window facing the Seine, they then broke a window, entered the Apollo gallery and left with the crown jewels in hand all in approximately 7 minutes. Now how could this have happened? Well, the security failures are something that many have been wracking their brains about. The Louvre is one of, if not the most famous museum in the world after all. With how fast the heist occurred and the fact that they came in the window, the guards of the Apollo gallery were not given ample time to respond and stop thieves as they would have if they had come through an entrance.

Security footage shows the thieves using the basket lift to get up to the multi story high balcony window, and use an angle grinder to discreetly enter.

Upon entrance, they made their way to the middle of the gallery without being caught and somehow simply grabbed the crown jewels and left through the same window. They took the same basket lift back down to the bank of the Seine, where they then left on electric scooters. All in broad daylight. As they were leaving, alarms sounded throughout the building, which alerted security, but it was already too late. The crown of Empress Eugénie was found broken outside the museum, indicating the thieves lost at least one item in the flight.

What happens now? Two suspects were assessed promptly after the speedy daylight heist, and they have been said to have “partially admitted” to the crimes. 5 more suspects were arrested in the days following, yet the jewels themselves are yet to be found. French authorities have said that the items stolen are worth a sum of over 100 million dollars.

This event has been a major wake up call for museum security, as it has shed light on the gaps in the systems in place. The balcony where the thieves entered had no security cameras, and there was a lack of security guards present in the gallery itself. 7 minutes is all it took for some of France’s most valuable items to be lost amidst the City of Love.