Two men charged with stealing €88m (£75m) worth of crown jewels from the Louvre have revealed that the alleged mastermind behind the heist believed they ‘could have taken more’. Abdoulaye N and Ghelamallah A, the suspects, shared new details about the infamous burglary during a questioning by two investigating judges last month.
According to the transcript seen by Le Monde, the suspects claimed a mysterious mastermind had orchestrated their break-in into the Louvre’s Apollo gallery. Both men said they were recruited just two or three days before the events. Abdoulaye N, a 40-year-old unlicensed taxi driver, was promised up to €20,000 (£17,000) depending on how much was stolen, while Ghelamallah A, a 36-year-old unemployed Algerian man, claimed he was told the target was ‘a jewelry store where they make jewelry in Paris’ and would have ‘never set foot there’ if he had known it was the Louvre.
The pair allegedly stole eight pieces of jewelry, including tiaras, a brooch, necklaces, and earrings belonging to former French royalty, with a haul of over 8,700 precious stones valued at a record €88 million. They gained access to a first-floor balcony using a furniture lift, before smashing through the window of the gallery and using a power cutter to break the glass and access the jewels.
Abdoulaye N revealed that the mastermind was not happy with their haul, saying ‘we lost time getting in through the window’. He also claimed that the alleged client had financial motives behind the crime and had planned to resell the stolen jewels. However, both suspects refused to give investigators any hints about the identity of the mastermind or accomplices due to fears of reprisals.
The investigation is ongoing, with investigators yet to confirm whether the burglars were acting on anyone else’s behalf. The stolen jewels, including a gem-encrusted crown belonging to Empress Eugénie, the 19th-century wife of Napoleon III, remain missing.
