After daring heist, fallen crown awaits its second life at Louvre

When thieves stormed the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery with an angle grinder and nerve to spare, they made off with some of France’s most storied Napoleonic jewels. But in the chaos of their escape through a window, one object quite literally slipped their grasp: the crown of Empress Eugénie, which crashed to the pavement below and was left behind, battered but not broken.

Now, more than 100 days later, the Louvre Museum has released new images of the damaged crown, offering a rare look at the toll the October heist took on one of the few surviving symbols of France’s imperial past. The images come as the museum prepares for a painstaking restoration it hopes will return the headdress close to its former splendor.

The crown was commissioned by Napoleon III for Empress Eugénie and unveiled at the 1855 Paris Universal Exposition. Though never used in a coronation, it functioned as a visual statement of imperial authority during the Second Empire before entering the Louvre’s collection in 1988.

It is also a rare survivor. Most of France’s crown jewels were looted during the French Revolution that began in 1789, and much of what remained was sold off by the state nearly a century later in a burst of republican fervor. Eugénie’s crown is one of the few major pieces that escaped that fate.

For decades, it dazzled visitors with its extravagance: 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds arranged around eight palmettes, alternating with gold eagles, all topped by a diamond-and-emerald orb. Today, the damage is unmistakable. One eagle is missing. Four palmettes have detached, some visibly warped. The orb has sunk awkwardly into a frame that no longer holds its proud shape.

According to a Louvre report, the crown’s flexible mount was strained when thieves forced it through a narrow opening cut into the display case.

“This stress caused the crown’s hoops to detach, one of which has already been lost in the gallery,” the museum said.

The final blow came when the crown hit the ground outside, likely crushing parts of its delicate antique structure.

And yet, the loss is smaller than it might have been. All 56 emeralds remain. Of the 1,354 diamonds, only about ten small stones from the base perimeter are missing, while nine others detached but were recovered. Nearly every element survives, allowing for what the museum describes as a “complete restoration” — one that will rely on reshaping rather than recreating parts from scratch.

The Louvre plans to invite restorers to submit proposals through a competitive process overseen by a newly formed committee of experts. Since the heist, some of the most prestigious names in high jewelry, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mellerio, Chaumet and Boucheron, have already offered their help.

The crown was not the thieves’ only target. In the seven-minute raid last October, they seized eight other pieces of jewelry, including items once worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, emerald pieces belonging to Empress Marie-Louise, and the so-called “reliquary brooch of Empress Eugénie.”