Gold Worth $700,000 Stolen In Paris' Natural History Museum
Thieves have broken into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth 600,000 euros ($700,000) in the latest of a series of robberies from cultural institutions, according to the museum.
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Paris Natural History Museum Hit by Sophisticated Gold Heist
France:
Sophisticated thieves have infiltrated Paris's Natural History Museum, stealing gold specimens valued at approximately 600,000 euros ($700,000), according to museum officials. This incident marks the latest in a concerning series of cultural institution robberies across France.
The National Natural History Museum, located in Paris's upscale 5th district and renowned for its impressive dinosaur skeletons and taxidermy exhibits, also maintains a significant geology and mineralogy collection.
The break-in was discovered Tuesday morning, with evidence suggesting the perpetrators utilized professional equipment including an angle grinder and blow torch to forcefully enter the riverside complex that attracts numerous Parisians and tourists.
"Several native gold specimens from our national collections were stolen during the incident," the museum's press office confirmed to AFP late Tuesday.
"While the raw gold value approximates 600,000 euros, these specimens possess immeasurable heritage significance beyond their monetary worth," they emphasized.
Native gold refers to a natural alloy containing unrefined gold and silver in their original state.
According to an anonymous police source quoted by the Parisien newspaper, the museum's security systems had been compromised by a cyber attack in July, although it remains unclear whether these systems were operational during the theft.
"We're clearly dealing with an exceptionally professional operation carried out by individuals who knew precisely what they were targeting and came equipped with specialized tools," museum director Emmanuel Skoulios told BFM TV.
"Their selection of specific items was absolutely deliberate," he added.
'Critical Timing' Following the incident, the museum temporarily closed its mineralogy gallery while conducting a thorough inventory to identify any additional losses.
Among the museum's prized possessions is a remarkable native gold and quartz specimen measuring 9 by 8.5 centimeters (3.3-3.5 inches) from California's Donatia mine, gifted by a wealthy French collector, as described on the museum's website.
The institution noted that this robbery "occurs during a particularly vulnerable period for cultural institutions, especially museums. Several public collections have been targeted by thieves in recent months."
While the statement didn't elaborate further, earlier this month the Adrien Dubouche National Museum in Limoges, central France, suffered a break-in resulting in the theft of two dishes and a vase in Chinese porcelain classified as national treasures, valued at approximately 6.5 million euros.
Last November, four individuals wielding axes and baseball bats shattered display cases in broad daylight at Paris's Cognacq-Jay museum, escaping with multiple 18th-century artworks.
The following day, jewelry worth several million euros was stolen during an armed robbery at a museum in central France's Saone-et-Loire region.
Perhaps the most infamous museum heist in recent French history occurred at Paris's Musee d'Art Moderne in May 2010.
Croatian burglar Vjeran Tomic, nicknamed "Spiderman," stole masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, and Amedeo Modigliani valued at over 100 million euros.
The investigation revealed alarming security deficiencies, including motion-detection alarms that had been non-functional for two months and three security guards who failed to detect the intruder.
Tomic received an eight-year prison sentence in 2017.