The Musée du Louvre reopened its Apollo Gallery to the public on Wednesday, nine months after a daylight robbery stripped the room of French crown jewels valued at €88 million. The gallery, one of the museum’s most ornate spaces, now stands empty of its former treasures: the remaining jewels have been moved to a secure, windowless vault elsewhere in the museum, and the stolen pieces have not been recovered. Museum director Christophe Leribault told Le Parisien that the room would return to its original 17th-century function as a ceremonial gallery, allowing visitors to view its gilded ceilings, frescoes and sculptures by Charles Le Brun and Eugène Delacroix.

Leribault, who assumed the directorship in February after the resignation of his predecessor Laurence des Cars, described the reopening as a new beginning. The heist on 19 October 2025 saw four men use a truck-mounted lift to reach a balcony, cut through windows and display cases with disc saws, and escape with eight items in under eight minutes. All four suspects, men from the Paris region with criminal records, were arrested and remain in custody, but the stolen jewels—including a pearl tiara and a corsage-bow brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie—have not been found. A crown belonging to Eugénie was later recovered damaged and is undergoing restoration.

The burglary exposed security failings that had been flagged in a 2019 museum-commissioned audit but never addressed. In response, the Louvre has installed additional surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems, and a mobile police post now operates inside the museum. The remaining crown jewels will be displayed only once a new high-security, windowless exhibition space is completed. The security overhaul forms part of the decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan, an €800 million project to modernise infrastructure and ease overcrowding at the world’s most visited museum, which received around nine million visitors last year.

Visitor reactions on reopening day ranged from fascination to disappointment. A German tourist told EFE that standing at the scene of “one of the biggest heists of the decade” made the visit “even more mystical,” while a Scottish former police officer told AFP she preferred the gallery empty. A Korean tour guide called the robbery “new history for the Apollo Gallery.” However, a tourist from New Jersey said she found the room more interesting when the jewels were present. French investigators continue to search for the stolen items, cooperating with police in Belgium, Italy and other countries, but no concrete leads have emerged. The four suspects have admitted involvement but claim they acted on the orders of an alleged mastermind whose existence investigators have not confirmed.