When four thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, American tourists Jake and Holly Barker were in the exact same room.
“And I heard these three loud bangs… someone was trying to get in,” Holly told The Earful Tower podcast.
“What got us to start running out the room was the saws. We could hear the saws. When we heard that, I looked at Holly and I said: ‘This is something serious’. We thought it was a terrorist attack,” Jake added.
When the thieves broke into the magnificent gallery, Holly, Jake, the staff members, and the other tourists all fled. The thieves, meanwhile, took eight priceless pieces of jewellery in mere minutes.
Hear the full dramatic story on the podcast below.
After escaping and processing what they had just witnessed, Jacob and Holly reached out to The Earful Tower to share their experience. I met them in the Marais to record their story. You can hear that conversation here or listen below.
“And when we heard that, I looked at Holly and I said; this is something serious“
Jacob and Holly were among the first people to enter the museum on Sunday morning. After visiting the Mona Lisa and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, they made straight for the Apollo Gallery. Jacob was taking his time to photograph some of the more eye-catching objects, “all these beautiful showcases of goblets and chalices and all these jewels… and a unicorn mermaid teapot…I thought it was kind of silly, and I liked it, so I took a picture of it,” he said on the podcast. (That’s it below).
It turned out he was taking these photos at the exact moment the robbery began. “The reason that it struck me was it happened at 9.33. And it was exactly when we heard several bangs on the window of the Apollo room.”
Holly was ahead of Jacob in the gallery, and even closer to the window where the thieves broke in. Hearing the banging sound on the door, she figured it was construction workers.
“I did not hear glass shattering, but I heard what was somebody trying to bust in the door.”
Jacob and Holly were startled by the bangs.
“There was some confusion among even the staff as to if they should let us out or not“
Jacob and Holly were soon caught up in a large group of people, including security guards and information concierges, as people tried to leave the museum by the side exits, which were locked.
“When we did get back down to the lobby at the very bottom, there were so many people. It was kind of chaotic. Staff there were informing us that something had happened, we were not in any danger, but we were not allowed to leave…they told us to go explore other wings.”
By 10am, security ordered a total evacuation, though the process was not orderly.
“We ran around the security metal detector. So, there were so many people trying to get out that the escalator was smashing everybody into each other.”
“We just can’t get over that this happened today, at, you know, 9.30 in the morning“
“I cannot believe that not only were we there, we were in the room – and what a story to share you know, but, some people might think how interesting, but for us it was not interesting, it was chaos as I’ve said before, it’s a kind of a sad moment because these things are priceless.”
As for the thieves, the national ministry of culture said they got away with:
- A brooch and a tiara from Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III
- An emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings belonging to Empress Marie Louise
- Another tiara, necklace and an earring from Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
- A brooch referred to as the “reliquary brooch”
The thieves, however, managed to drop two items during their getaway, including Empress Eugénie’s crown.
We will be keeping a close eye on this story.