In a story sure to inspire a Netflix movie before too long, on October 19, 2025, thieves pulled a brazen daytime robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The thieves made off with eight historic pieces of jewelry belonging to French royalty, including Napoleon Bonaparte. The theft occurred at approximately 9:30 AM, when the museum had been open for only half an hour, as four masked men used a furniture-lift truck to access a first-floor window on the quietest side of the building.
They entered the Galerie d’Apollon, which houses the crown jewels of France, and used saw-type devices to cut through display cases. The entire robbery took only about eight minutes, after which the thieves exited the same way they entered, then sped away on waiting motorbikes.
The window to the Apollo Gallery, broken by the thieves to enter the museum. Photo: Phil Pasquini/Shutterstock
The heist has gained global attention, not just because of the loss of the priceless jewels, but because the Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum. The crime exposed security gaps and weaknesses in a collection many people assume to be among the most guarded on earth. The Louvre holds items like The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (stolen in 1911 but recovered in 1913) and the Code of Hammurabi, a series of Babylonian legal doctrines from the 18th century BCE.
Photo: INTERPOL
Investigators haven’t made arrests or recovered any other items, and sources have said they’re worried the pieces will be lost forever. Because they’re so recognizable, they’d be next to impossible to sell, even on an illegal black market. As a result, experts think the thieves will likely dismantle the items and sell them in pieces.
Whether the pieces are found or not, the robbery raises major questions: are museums that hold invaluable items properly protected, and what other valuable and historic items around the world may be at stake? While security at most museums has never been tighter or more high-tech, the five museums below could be potential targets for would-be robbers. Here’s why.
The British Museum (London, United Kingdom)
A woman admiring priceless items from ancient Egypt at the British Museum, London. Photo: Tupungato/Shutterstock
The British Museum is almost as well known as the Louvre, with about eight million objects, 80,000 of which are displayed publicly at any given time. Everything not on display sits in storage. And many of these items are small and unassuming, like ancient glass beads, coins, and gems. Many are not only valuable in terms of materials, but may have huge black market value for historians, collectors, and unscrupulous collectors.
In 2023, it was discovered that a long-serving curator managed to steal approximately 1,800 small items from this storage area, valued at around 100,000 pounds (about $133,000). With so many items within the collection, the theft went nearly unnoticed, especially as all 8 million objects have yet to be entirely cataloged and sorted. In fact, it was only found out when the employee attempted to sell the items on eBay. An analysis after the incident found that the museum’s tracking system was too lax, and in response, the museum announced it would spend nearly 10 million pounds to upgrade its cataloging and tracking systems — but the project won’t be completed until 2028 at the earliest.
The National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City, Mexico)
Priceless pre-Columbian jewelry and gold on display at the museum of Anthropology. Photo: nikitich viktoriya/Shutterstock
Mexico City’s flagship museum is home to the world’s largest collection of ancient Mexican artifacts, estimated at around 600,000 objects. However, some items here could be particularly vulnerable to theft due to their small size, high cultural value, and recent security and labor issues at the 850,000-square-foot museum. The museum has thousands of small historic items made with now-priceless materials like gold, jade, and obsidian, all of which are highly portable, easy to conceal, and potentially extremely valuable to collectors, as Mexico’s ancient civilizations are some of the most well-known on earth.
Unfortunately, in 2025, the National Museum of Anthropology made public headlines for having security challenges. In early June, it closed due to an unexpected shortage of security staff, stemming from the museum’s decision to replace police guards with a private security firm. That firm didn’t send enough guards, and the museum remained closed until President Claudia Sheinbaum reinstated police guards. Critics have also suggested that the museum’s recent rushed and incomplete renovations could give the impression of disorganization, potentially encouraging would-be thieves.
The Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)
The Smithsonian American History Museum holds thousands of objects that could be considered nearly priceless to collectors of Americana and memorabilia, like the “ruby slippers” worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz.” Photo: The Smithsonian Newsdesk
The Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC, form the world’s largest museum complex, with 21 museums (plus the National Zoo), and more than 150 million objects. Admission is free, meaning there’s no record of who is coming and going from the museums at any given time.
Of the many museums, the National Museum of American History is often thought to be the most at risk of theft for multiple reasons. It includes many objects considered to be invaluable to America’s history, the theft of which could be a collective national loss. It’s also been vulnerable in the past; one of four sets of George Washington’s ivory and gold teeth was stolen in 1981 and never recovered.
But the biggest threat to the Smithsonian isn’t physical weaknesses: it’s budget and manpower. Its status as a federally funded institution means it’s subject to government budget fluctuations and whims. In early 2025, it was asked to freeze all hiring, with an unknown number of employees accepting buyouts offered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to leave their jobs in February 2025. Donald Trump has publicly criticized the Smithsonian Institution for accurately portraying America’s highest and lowest moments in history, and demanded it remove displays he didn’t like about his own first term in office. This could lead potential thieves to assume there would be little federal support for an investigation, were something to be stolen.
As an arm of the federal government, the Smithsonian is protected by a dedicated security force (the Smithsonian Office of Protection Services), which includes armed, highly trained guards. Guests also have to go through metal detectors and bag screenings to enter the museums. Unfortunately, government shutdowns have forced partial or complete closures to many of its museums, reducing on-site personnel either through furloughs, or through call-in sick days as “mandatory” employees are asked to work longer and longer without pay. Fewer employees for duties like security, maintenance, and cataloging could make the museum more vulnerable than ever to theft.
The Musée Cognacq-Jay (Paris, France)
The museum contains ornately furnished rooms, covered in lavish decor and art from the 18th century. Photo: Alizada Studios/Shutterstock
For some museums, a recent history of robberies may make them continue to feel vulnerable. That’s the case with the small Musée Cognacq-Jay, displaying 18th-century art collected by a wealthy French businessman inside a historic townhouse; the collector later gifted it to the city of Paris.
It was robbed in November 2024, when four thieves armed with axes and baseball bats smashed through a glass display case holding precious snuffboxes from an exhibit on pocket-sized luxury items. They stole at least five items and escaped before police arrived. The items were on loan from other institutions that may have had higher security than the smaller Hôtel Donon, which could be a reason thieves saw it as a prime target.
Though the museum had met all required security minimums, such as having security cameras, guards in each room, and extra-strength display cases, staff at the museum have told news outlets that they think its small size and older staff and visitors could make it more vulnerable to future robberies. They’ve also expressed that increasing security further could make the museum feel inaccessible or unwelcoming to guests. Currently, the museum holds works by Dutch master Rembrandt, valuable antique household items ranging from clocks to vases, and decorative items that would have been used in the daily lives of 19th-century French aristocrats. Like the Smithsonian, the museum is free to enter.
The Grünes Gewölbe (Dresden, Germany)
The Dresden Green Diamond, one of the museum’s signature items (not stolen in 2019). Photo: Diego Grandi/Shutterstock
The Green Vault (Grünes Gewölbe) in Dresden is a dazzling museum filled with literal treasure. It showcases jewels, gold, and expensive objets d’art collected by rulers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Visitors can walk through nine lavishly decorated rooms themed around a particular color, reflecting the way the former leader of Saxony who amassed them (Augustus the Strong) wanted them displayed.
For potential thieves, no target would be more appealing than the aptly named “Jewel Room,” which contains, among other valuable items, a 41-carat natural green diamond called the “Dresden Green Diamond.” Unfortunately, the museum is also a case study in the challenges of housing a priceless collection in a historic building, as the building’s original character must be preserved as much as the art in it. That means any building modifications, such as reinforcing windows, adding alarms, or installing metal doors, must be approved by a historic preservation committee.
Some of those weaknesses were exposed in 2019, when thieves sawed through 18th-century iron bars, broke a small window, and made off with diamond-covered jewelry estimated to be worth $1 billion. Analysis after the fact stated that there was a “lack of a comprehensive security concept, patchy surveillance, and outdated cameras,” noting that “security gaps were known but ignored.”
Following the burglary, the government installed new bullet-resistant glass, infrared motion sensors, and reinforced display cases. But it still maintained many of the policies that were criticized after the break-in, such as making information about display cases available online, or leaving the lights off during the robbery. Guards say this is to avoid aiding the thieves, but critics say it only leads to unusable security footage.
In 2024, some of the recovered stolen jewels went back on display, though the 62-carat “Dresden White Diamond” is still missing. At the re-opening, museum officials said they planned to enhance security protocols, the exact details of which have not been made public.
