The trail of the Louvre jewels leads to Belgium. The search is focusing on a man nicknamed "Laser" and a pair described as Slavs

Seven and a half months after the most famous museum heist of the century, the investigation has taken a new direction — to Belgium. French detectives have focused on analyzing the phones of detained Eastern European thieves, on which photographs were found of the hall from which the French crown jewels disappeared. And although five people are already behind bars, the eight pieces of jewelry themselves, worth 88 million euros, remain missing — and investigators fear that part of the haul may have vanished into networks of illegal gem trading. Euronews ↗ Since then everything has moved except the search itself. On 22 July the Louvre reopened the looted Apollo Gallery — empty, with neither the jewels nor the display cases —, five days later the government responded to another daylight robbery with a 33-point national plan to protect museums, and in the meantime it became clear that the Louvre was not an exception but the start of a series. Nothing public has been added to the Belgian lead, and the eight pieces are still missing eleven months on.

The Belgian lead from mobile phones

The new lead did not emerge from questioning the main suspects, but from analyzing the phones of a group that at first glance has nothing to do with the heist — a gang specializing in robbing trucks carrying cargo. According to the newspaper Le Parisien, whose report was also picked up by Euronews, images of the interior of the Louvre were found on their phones, specifically of the Apollo Gallery, from which the thieves carried off the jewels on October 19. In addition, there were calls, movements, and contacts leading beyond the French border — to Belgium. French and Belgian investigators have therefore opened a joint investigation, and French detectives have already traveled to Belgium to verify who from the local underworld could have prepared the heist or arranged the sale of the jewels. Der Standard ↗

Antwerp: where the trail could go cold forever

Belgium did not become part of the investigation by chance. Right after the theft, French investigators warned their colleagues that the jewels could end up on the black market of Antwerp's diamond district — the largest gem-trading hub in Europe. That is precisely the nightmare of curators: if the stones are pried out of the historic jewelry pieces and recut, they lose their identity and become untraceable. Every additional week without a seizure increases the risk that the Napoleonic diadems will be reduced to anonymous carats dissolved in global trade. The Jerusalem Post ↗ Three months have passed since that lead and neither French nor Belgian investigators have announced a single arrest in Antwerp. That is no proof the trail was a dead end, as the file is under judicial secrecy. It is, however, exactly the stretch of time curators say it takes for the stones to lose their identity.

"Laser" and two Slavs

While police have largely identified the operational team of the heist — five people have been charged, several of them from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis — the mastermind and intermediaries remain in the shadows. The French daily Le Parisien writes about figures whom investigators so far know only by nicknames: a man nicknamed "Laser" and two men whom it describes as Slavs, whose role police are trying to clarify. Hope that the case will move forward is being fueled by the detainees themselves: according to Le Parisien and the Belgian daily L'Avenir, some of the French suspects are willing to reveal where the jewels are hidden in exchange for a lighter sentence. How that hearing went was never made public, and the jewels have been missing for three further months since. idnes / Le Parisien ↗

Eight minutes that humiliated France

Let us recall what happened. On Sunday, October 19, 2025, in broad daylight and during opening hours, men in reflective vests, posing as workers, arrived at the Louvre's south wing. Using a freight lift platform, they climbed up to the window of the Apollo Gallery, cut through the display cases, and were gone in under eight minutes. Of the nine pieces they took, eight remain missing to this day. The crown of Empress Eugénie fell onto the pavement during their escape and was found damaged. The theft exposed catastrophic gaps in the protection of the world's most visited museum, and in the wake of it and the subsequent criticism of security, Louvre director Laurence des Cars resigned in February. ITV News ↗ She was replaced in February by Christophe Leribault, until then head of the Musée d'Orsay, and it was he who reopened the looted hall in July. The crown of Empress Eugénie has meanwhile been given a future: on 4 February the Louvre announced it would be fully restored under the supervision of an expert committee. It is deformed but almost complete — all 56 emeralds are in place and only about ten of its 1,354 diamonds are missing, along with one of its eight golden eagles. Louvre ↗

The gallery is open again, and it is empty

On 22 July, after nine months, the Apollo Gallery returned to visitors, but without the thing they came for. The museum moved the collections elsewhere and is returning the hall to the purpose it had in the 17th century, a ceremonial one. There are not even empty display cases, just gilded ceilings and frescoes on the way to the Mona Lisa. According to director Christophe Leribault, the new arrangement is a chance to rediscover the architecture and decoration of the gallery itself. Culture minister Catherine Pégard said on the occasion that the day of the robbery should not be forgotten, because it exposed the vulnerability of a museum that had until then been considered impregnable. The Louvre has since installed new cameras and intrusion-detection systems, and security is one of the priorities of the ten-year Louvre New Renaissance plan worth 800 million euros. The Independent ↗ BBC ↗

The Louvre was not an exception but a beginning

In late July two men in wigs and sunglasses walked into the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais in Burgundy during opening hours, smashed a secured display case with a hammer and in under four minutes made off with the golden torc of the Lady of Vix. Nearly half a kilogram of solid gold from the grave of a Celtic ruler two and a half thousand years ago, one of the most significant finds in French archaeology. The museum had twice been targeted at night before and each time the alarm foiled the attempt, so they came in daylight instead. Investigators have detained one of the two. France 3 Bourgogne ↗

Four days later, on 27 July, Pégard announced a 33-point national security plan for museums, monuments and churches, ranging from staff training to removing the highest-risk objects from display until a safer setting is found for them. No place is being spared, she said, from the smallest church to the biggest, and she called replacing masterpieces with copies a serious mistake. Since the Louvre heist the ministry has mapped more than 3,100 museums, monuments and churches as sensitive sites and set aside 30 million euros over three years, which averages just under ten thousand euros each. The Art Newspaper ↗

In mid-August Le Figaro described why the targets are shifting: those commissioning the thefts are bypassing old master paintings and going for art objects in smaller collections, where organised crime meets the mafias. Spain's El País ties it to the number underlying the whole wave, the price of gold, which has risen sharply over nine years and set off a run on Spanish and other European museums. Le Figaro ↗ El País ↗

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