As the manhunt for the suspects in the Louvre jewel heist continued on Monday, a Paris prosecutor said she feared the investigation could be undermined by “urgent revelations” over the weekend, when two other robbery suspects were arrested.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said publicly released information about the arrests in the Louvre case should not have been released.
“It is with great regret that informed persons hastily disclosed this information without regard to the investigation,” Beccuau said in a statement released by her office Sunday evening.
Christophe Ena/AP – PHOTO: Riot police officers patrol as people line up to enter the Louvre museum, Monday, March 25, 2025. October 27 in Paris.
Beccuau added: “This revelation can only harm the efforts of around a hundred investigators looking for the stolen jewelery and the criminals who are still at large.
Under French law, suspects can be held for 96 hours before prosecutors have to arrest them or release them.
Anadolu via Getty Images – PHOTO: The seven-minute robbery at the Louvre Museum.
“It’s too early to give more details,” Beccuau said. “I will provide additional information after this phase of care is completed.
Two men in their 30s from a Paris suburb were arrested over the weekend on charges of being part of a ring that pulled off a brazen jewel heist, French national police confirmed to ABC News.
One suspect was arrested Saturday at 10 p.m. at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport when he tried to board a plane bound for Algeria, police said.
The second suspect was arrested by police as he prepared to travel to Mali in West Africa. An investigator from the Paris Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB), the special police unit leading the probe, and a source directly involved in the investigation at the French Interior Ministry told ABC News.
The Louvre Robbery: A Timeline of the Audacious Theft, the Investigation and the First Arrests
Both suspects, whose names have not been released publicly, are French nationals living in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, according to investigators.
One of the suspects has dual French-Malian citizenship and the other is a dual French-Algerian citizen, investigators said, adding that both were already known to police from previous thefts.
Investigators said they matched DNA traces from a helmet left at the crime scene to one of the suspects, allowing police to track the suspected thief by phone and in person.
Both suspects are believed to have played active roles in the brazen October 19 attack. robbery at the Louvre, in which eight expensive pieces of jewelry, including crowns containing thousands of diamonds and other precious stones, were stolen, according to sources.
Investigators say they are still looking into whether a source at the Louvre may have played a role in the theft.
According to Paris police, during the elaborate robbery, a team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a stolen truck with a “mobile freight elevator” or cherry picker on the back that extended up to the window.
Two thieves dressed as construction workers climbed up to the second floor with a cherry picker, where they used angle grinders to cut through the window of the Apollo Gallery, authorities said.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers in 2025. October 19 entered the Louvre Museum on Quai Francois Mitterrand.
After entering the gilded gallery, the thieves used power tools to hack into the display cases to get at the precious jewels, investigators said.
The entire robbery lasted about seven minutes, according to investigators.
Beccuau estimated that $102 million worth of jewels were stolen, including crowns, necklaces, earrings and a diamond-encrusted brooch that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.
“They knew exactly where they were going. It seems like something very organized and very professional,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati told ABC News last week.
Video captures Louvre jewel thieves exiting museum with cherry picker
The location of the gems remains a mystery.
According to the Louvre, among the jewels taken was a pearl and diamond tiara from the collection of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense. According to the Louvre, the tiara is made up of 212 pearls of various sizes and nearly 2,000 diamonds. The work was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III for his marriage to Eugenie de Montijo in 1853.
Louvre Museum / Stéphane Maréchalle – PHOTO: 2025 October 19 French Empress Eugenie’s diadem, or tiara, was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris, an official said.
Another tiara from the Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense collection, which includes sapphires and more than 1,000 diamonds, was also stolen, according to the Louvre.
One crown, made of gold, diamonds and emeralds that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, was damaged in a theft and found on a street outside the museum, Dati told ABC News.
Louvre Museum / Stéphane Maréchalle – PHOTO: between 2025 October 19 Among the jewels stolen from the Louvre Museum is this diadem, or crown, from the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense.
Testifying before the French Senate’s Culture Committee on Wednesday, Louvre president and director Laurence des Cars described the theft as “a huge wound inflicted on us.”
Louvre Museum / Stéphane Maréchalle – PHOTO: between 2025 October 19 Among the items stolen from the Louvre Museum is this emerald necklace from the Marie-Louise collection.
Des Cars said all the museum’s alarms were working properly, as were its video cameras, but he noted a “weakness” in security that the thieves had exploited. She said the only camera installed behind the Apollo Gallery faced west and did not cover the window where the thieves broke in and left.
“The weakness of the Louvre is the security of its perimeter, which has been a problem for a long time … certainly due to underinvestment,” des Cars told lawmakers.
Des Cars added: “We didn’t spot criminals coming in from outside early enough.”