The Louvre heist took seven minutes

Question

On Sunday, October 19, four thieves broke into the Louvre in broad daylight and stole $102 million worth in jewels. Here's the kicker, it took only seven minutes to complete. Researchers are trying to figure out how such a guarded and secure museum was broken into in such a small span of time in the middle of the day. https://abcnews.go.com/International/thieves-robbed-louvre-minutes-minute-minute-breakdown-daring/story?id=126719610

Answer 1

According to the Time article by Rebecca Schneid and Solcyré Burga, investigators say the thieves entered and exited the museum in under four minutes on Sunday morning. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the robbery was "a major, highly organized operation carried out by a team that had done scouting".  In the museum, the thieves smashed glass cases and stole eight pieces of historic royal jewelry valued at around $100 million. Robbers escaped on scooters and were gone in less than four minutes, so no, the robbery didn't take seven minutes; the heist lasted just under four minutes from start to finish. 

https://time.com/7326868/louvre-robbery-museum-crown-jewels/

Comments

I really like how you provided clarification on how the thieves broke in, it really shows the depths you went to answer this question. I also really like how you included a link to where all this information is provided. Nice job.

Answer 2

The claim is largely true, based on current information. ABC, CNN, and BBC report that according to police, the vehicle with the ladder that the thieves used arrived to the Louvre at 9:30 am, and by 9:37 to 9:38, they had left. So depending on the source, the thieves were on site for 7 to 8 minutes. According to CNN and BBC, French police believe the thieves were only inside for 4 minutes, and so one could argue the heist took only 4 minutes, but this boils down to differing definitions. However, as the robbery happened recently and the investigation is still on-going, more information may come up to confirm or disprove this claim.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/louvre-museum-closes-after-robbery-french-minister/story?id=126657104

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7nrlkg0zxo

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/europe/france-louvre-director-heist-intl-hnk

Answer 3

Based on current information, this claim is untrue. According to a TIME article, investigators suspect that it took less than four minutes for the thieves to enter the museum, steal the jewels, and exit the museum to escape. Employees at the museum have been reporting understaffing since earlier this year. They have claimed that there were "too few eyes on too many rooms" (TIME). This is still a developing case, and there are a lot of unanswered questions, but we can establish that it took less than four minutes for the thieves to enter and exit the museum. ABC News published an article with an estimated timeline of seven minutes for the entire robbery, which included the time it took for the thieves to park their truck and then drive away. However, they also concluded that the thieves would have only spent four minutes in the museum. So overall, this claim is untrue. 

Answer 4

This claim is false, according to a BBC article, “French police say the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38.” The robbers reportedly arrived at 9:30, making their total time 8 minutes, and time inside the Louvre 4 minutes. In the museum, the thieves smashed glass cases and stole eight pieces of historic royal jewelry valued at around $100 million. So, if you are only talking about the heist inside the Louvre, it only took 4 minutes, but the heist as a whole took 8 minutes.

BBC article

Answer 5

This claim is technically false. Although many initial reports about the Louvre heist allege that it took 7-8 minutes, according to the most recent reporting, it is believed to have taken only 4.  

Multiple highly trusted and reputable news sources such as ABC News and the New York Times have reported that the Louvre heist took just under 8 minutes.  

https://abcnews.go.com/International/thieves-robbed-louvre-minutes-minute-minute-breakdown-daring/story?id=126719610 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/europe/louvre-paris-robbery.html 

Therefore, upon first glance, one would assume that was the correct duration of the heist. However, all of those articles are from 3-4 days ago. That may seem recent in the grand scheme of things, but given how fast things can change during an ongoing investigation of this profile, this is old, outdated, and inaccurate news. 

Yesterday Time Magazine published the latest update on the case, now claiming that the heist took only 4 minutes. The piece titled Louvre Heist: How Thieves Carried Out an Audacious Heist of Napoleonic Jewels reads: "Investigators say the thieves entered and exited the museum in under four minutes on Sunday morning, escaping with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels."  A 3-minute difference may seem minute, but the heist taking just 4 minutes is even more mind-boggling and impressive, not to mention that that small detail could be crucial to investigators. 

https://time.com/7326868/louvre-robbery-museum-crown-jewels/  

Overall this claim is untrue, but not in a malicious or misinformative way; the original reporting is just outdated. Perhaps in 3 days we'll find out it really took 2 minutes and what we trust now may also be false. 

Answer 6

This claim seems to be true as if we define the heist length as long it took to get in, grab the jewels, and then leave on their two scooters then it did take about 7 minutes. On AP news, a source that is generally held to be reliable, they list a timeline of the heist showing that it took about 8 minutes for everything to happen. The New York Times, also a mostly reliable news source, has an article where they also say that the heist lasted for about 8 minutes. Which I consider 8 minutes to be close enough to seven to count for this claim to be mostly true, as it can be hard to get an exact time of when everything happened. It can also be hard to quantify a fully 'correct' timeline as it can depend on when you, yourself think the heist truly started and truly ended. 

https://apnews.com/article/louvre-heist-jewels-paris-timeline-a072c2a5aba6ab5eeb429a280266a799

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/world/louvre-jewelry-heist.html