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Burglars stole millions of dollars worth of jewelry from the museum of French luxury glassmaker Lalique in a daring early-morning raid on Sunday, just months after a stunning gem heist at the Louvre in Paris.
A gang of masked thieves broke in to the museum in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France around 5:30 am, forcing a door before heading for the jewelry room and smashing open six display cases, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
“Around twenty pieces of jewelry were stolen. The loss is currently being assessed but could amount to several million euros, likely close to four million (over $4.5 million),” the source said.
Another source close to the investigation said the stolen jewelry was crystal, without precious gems, and could not be melted down.
The museum said on its website that it will be closed for several day because of the burglary.
“An alarm went off, but by the time the security company had completed its checks, it was a cleaning lady who arrived first on the scene and called the police,” the first investigation source added.
The CCTV footage is currently being examined.
The museum, dedicated to the Art Nouveau and Art Deco jeweler and glassmaker Rene Lalique, was opened in 2011 near the company’s factory.
PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images
It houses over 650 “exceptional works” including Art Nouveau jewelry, Art Deco glass and contemporary crystal, according to the museum website.
“Well informed” suspects
The mayor of Wingen-sur-Moder, a town of 1,500 inhabitants about 37 miles northwest of Strasbourg, told local newspaper Les Dernieres nouvelles d’Alsace (DNA) he was angry about the burglary.
“All the alarms went off, just as they should. And then with the security company, apparently, there was a major failure on their part: they didn’t intervene right away, they didn’t inform the gendarmes,” Christian Dorschner said.
“They were surely well informed to carry out this job in that way; they must be … specialists,” the mayor also told DNA.
The Lalique museum was seen as a “sensitive” site, receiving special attention in the wake of the dramatic daytime heist at the Louvre museum in Paris in October last year, which put security at French museums and galleries under the spotlight.
Thieves made off with $102 million worth of jewelry, including some of the old French crown jewels, from the Louvre in a raid lasting less than eight minutes.
The suspected thieves have been arrested and charged, but none of the jewels have been recovered except for a crown that was dropped as the group escaped.
A security audit found that 35% of the rooms in the Denon Wing, where the stolen jewels were displayed, were not monitored by security cameras, according to Radio France. The gems were also not privately insured, in accordance with French law.
Museums targeted in France
France’s museums have suffered a spate of break-ins in recent months.
Last October, a woman was arrested and charged over the theft of gold from the Natural History Museum in Paris.
In September, thieves snatched three porcelain works worth millions of dollars and classed as national treasures in a heist 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, making off with several 18th-century works. That heist resulted in an insurance payment of over $4 million to the Royal Collection Trust, BBC News reported.
The next day, jewelry valued at several million dollars was stolen during an armed robbery at a museum in Saone-et-Loire in central France.