Europe’s museums used to fear cat burglars. Now they fear men with axes and explosives. A new Europol report finds heists have turned violent, with thieves chasing gold and jewels instead of art, the Louvre robbery among the most striking cases.
The €88m robbery at the Louvre in October 2025 illustrates the trend. Thieves stole nine pieces of historic jewellery from the Apollo Gallery. Police recovered one damaged item near the museum, but the other eight remain missing; Interpol has added them to its Stolen Works of Art database.
The Europol report places the Louvre robbery within a broader change in museum crime. Thieves increasingly resort to firearms, physical violence, sledgehammers, axes, and explosives rather than relying on discreet break-ins.
The shift to gold and jewellery
The objects being stolen have also changed. Criminals increasingly target gold, silver, jewellery, precious stones, and other portable valuables instead of paintings. These items are harder to trace and easier to sell without drawing attention.
Gold can be melted down and jewellery dismantled, making stolen objects harder to trace. Gold prices have increased by 85 per cent over the past two years, adding to the financial incentive for museum thieves. Ancient Chinese porcelain has also become an attractive target because of demand from international collectors.
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The Louvre was among several prominent cases examined by Europol. In January 2025, thieves used explosives to break into the Drents Museum in the Netherlands and steal ancient Romanian gold artefacts. Dutch police recovered the helmet and two of the three bracelets in April 2026. The violence and damage involved in such cases mark a departure from the methods traditionally associated with cultural-property crime.
Museum robbers recruited online
Europol believes the change could reflect the involvement of criminals with experience in other offences. Some may be recruited through social media for individual robberies. This ‘crime-as-a-service’ model differs from established art-trafficking networks.
These temporary groups divide responsibilities: some identify targets, others arrange transport, carry out the robbery, or sell and dismantle the stolen objects. The participants may have little contact beyond the particular operation.
Europol recommends that museums regularly reassess their security, improve inventories, train staff, and strengthen cooperation with police. Interpol’s international database currently contains records of almost 57,000 identifiable stolen or missing cultural objects.
Cross-border investigations
Europol’s European Serious and Organised Crime Centre supports national authorities with intelligence, analysis, coordination, and experts deployed during investigations. This allows the agency to connect suspects and stolen objects across jurisdictions and to monitor emerging criminal methods across the EU.
Offenders are breaching premises and display cases using tools such as sledgehammers, axes, crowbars and, in some instances, explosives. — Europol
In November 2025, a Europol-supported operation dismantled a network trafficking ancient gold and silver coins and other cultural objects across Europe and beyond. The operation led to 35 arrests in Bulgaria. Europol’s task force helped identify international links, locate further suspected artefacts, and launch additional investigations in participating countries. “Offenders are breaching premises and display cases using tools such as sledgehammers, axes, crowbars and, in some instances, explosives,” Europol said in the report.
The Louvre robbery may remain the best-known example. But Europol’s findings suggest that the methods used there are part of a wider European problem. Museums are no longer protecting their collections only from specialised art thieves. Increasingly, they are protecting them from violent criminals interested as much in the material value of an object as in its cultural significance.
