The Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre Museum is set to reopen to the public this Wednesday, July 21st following a spectacular jewelry theft in October 2025. However, this time the gallery will reopen without any display cases or exhibited jewels, reverting to its original 17th-century function as a ceremonial reception room (“galerie d’apparat”). The museum’s president, Christophe Leribault, confirmed that all remaining precious collections have been removed from the hall.
The closure followed a brazen daylight heist on October 19th, 2025, when a commando-style robber used a cherry picker truck to enter the gallery, stealing eight items classified as French Crown jewels—worth an estimated €88 million—which remain missing. To protect the surviving treasures, the museum plans to construct a windowless, high-security vault in a different location. This major project will require significant structural work, ideal placement, and new funding.
The heist sent shockwaves globally, exposing major security vulnerabilities at the world’s most-visited museum, which sees around 9 million visitors annually. The incident triggered an internal crisis, leading to the replacement of the museum’s former president, Laurence des Cars, by Leribault. A parliamentary commission recently criticized the institution, stating that museum security had been sidelined in recent years.
