PARIS: Thieves broke into Paris’ Louvre museum by using a crane and smashing an upstairs window on Sunday, stealing priceless jewellery from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes, the French government said.

The robbery is likely to raise awkward questions about security at the museum, where officials had already sounded the alarm about a lack of investment at a world-famous site that welcomed 8.7 million visitors in 2024.

The thieves struck at about 9:30am (0730 GMT) when the museum had already opened its doors to the public, and entered the Galerie d’Apollon building, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The robbery took around four minutes, Culture Minister Rachida Dati told TF1, and it was carried out by professionals.

“We saw some footage: they don’t target people, they enter calmly in four minutes, smash display cases, take their loot, and leave. No violence, very professional,” she said on TF1.

She said one piece of jewellery had been recovered outside the museum, apparently dropped as they made their escape.

Dati declined to say what the item was, but newspaper Le Parisien said it was believed to be the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie. The jewel was broken, the newspaper said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France Inter that three or four thieves got into the museum from outside using a crane that was positioned on a truck.

“They broke a window, headed to several display cases and stole jewels… which have a real historical, priceless value,” Nunez said.

Probe underway

A video posted on X by a museum guide showed visitors filing towards exits in the middle of their tour, initially unaware of the reason for the disruption.

Nunez said a probe had been opened, with a specialised police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies such as this one, tasked with running it.

No injuries were reported, Dati said.

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, said on X it would remain closed for the day for “exceptional reasons”.

In one of the most daring art thefts in history, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the museum in 1911 in a heist involving a former employee. He was eventually caught and the painting was returned to the museum two years later.

Questions on security

Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum’s ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art.

Dati said the issue of museum security was not new.

“For 40 years, there was little focus on securing these major museums, and two years ago, the president of the Louvre requested a security audit from the police prefect. Why? Because museums must adapt to new forms of crime,” she said. “Today, it’s organised crime — professionals.”

US President Donald Trump has responded to Saturday’s anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies taking place across the US in his typical aggressive style, posting an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform depicting him as a king.

He is shown wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet that drops filth on anti-Trump protesters, soiling their clothes and causing chaos among the crowd.

Huge crowds took to the streets in all 50 US states at “No Kings” protests on Saturday, venting anger over President Trump’s hardline policies, while Republicans ridiculed them as “Hate America” rallies.

Organisers said seven million people marched in protests spanning New York to Los Angeles, with demonstrations popping up in small cities across the US heartland and even near Trump’s home in Florida.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, on Friday echoed a common refrain among his party, labelling the “No Kings” protests “the hate America rally.”

Protesters spanning all age groups took to the streets en masse for “No Kings” rallies across the United States on Saturday, denouncing what they view as authoritarian tendencies and unbridled corruption of US President Donald Trump.

Organisers expected millions of people to turn out by day’s end at more than 2,600 planned rallies in major cities, small towns, and suburbs, challenging a Trump-led agenda that has reshaped the government and upended democratic norms with unprecedented speed since he took office in January.

Demonstrators filled Times Square in New York City, where police said they made “zero protest-related arrests” even as more than 100,000 people rallied peacefully across all five boroughs.

Events in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, and Seattle also drew crowds that each appeared to encompass thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people.

On the West Coast, more than a dozen rallies occurred around the Los Angeles area, including the primary site downtown. In Seattle, demonstrators filled a parade route that stretched for more than a mile from downtown through the Seattle Centre plaza around the city’s landmark Space Needle. More than 25,000 protested peacefully in San Diego, police said.

The protests reflected growing unease among many Americans, mainly on the ideological left, with developments such as the criminal prosecution of Trump’s perceived political enemies, his militarised immigration crackdown, and the sending of National Guard troops into US cities — a move Trump has said was aimed at fighting crime and protecting immigration agents.

Trump has said little about Saturday’s protests. But in an interview with Fox Business aired on Friday, he said that “they’re referring to me as a king – I’m not a king.”

Saturday’s protests were aimed at building on the momentum gained from more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests that were staged on June 14, coinciding with Trump’s 79th birthday and a rare military parade in Washington.

• Ishin, unlike previous LDP partner, won’t be in cabinet.
• Parliamentary vote to choose PM slated for Tuesday.
• Takaichi wants tax cuts, higher spending.
  

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have broadly agreed to form a coalition government, setting the stage for the country’s first female prime minister, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

Sanae Takaichi, leader of the conservative LDP, and Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the smaller right-leaning group known as Ishin, are set to sign an agreement sealing their alliance on Monday, Kyodo said.

Calls to the LDP and Ishin headquarters to seek comment went unanswered outside business hours.

Ishin’s co-head, Fumitake Fujita, raised expectations for a deal on Friday, saying the two parties had made “big progress” in coalition talks.

Ishin lawmakers will vote for Takaichi in an election to choose the prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, but the party does not plan to send ministers to Takaichi’s cabinet, at least initially, Kyodo said.

That would fall short of the full-fledged alliance the LDP maintained with the Komeito party until the junior partner quit the coalition this month, raising concern over the stability of the forthcoming government.

Ishin’s Fujita told reporters on Sunday evening that negotiations were in the final stages and his fellow lawmakers entrusted Yoshimura and him to make a final decision on the matter for the party.

He said their decision will be announced on Monday, but declined to go into details.

“I don’t know how the picture we will paint tomorrow will be evaluated, but I think we are heading into tomorrow while the relationship of trust is deepening substantially, and I believe that’s what the other party is thinking,” Fujita said.

Takaichi’s path to succeed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain after she won the presidency of the long-ruling LDP early this month. But then Komeito quit the 26-year coalition with the LDP, setting off a flurry of negotiations with rival parties to select the next premier.

In an effort to get Ishin on board, the LDP offered to keep working towards banning donations from companies and other organisations and exempting food items from Japan’s sales tax, Kyodo said.

Ishin has proposed eliminating the tax on food items for two years.

Takaichi, a fiscal dove, has called for higher spending and tax cuts to cushion consumers from rising inflation and has criticised the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise interest rates.

She favours revising Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution to recognise the role of its expanding military.

Takaichi is a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine honouring Japan’s war dead, including some executed war criminals, and is viewed by some Asian neighbours as a symbol of the nation’s past militarism.