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Thieves steal crown jewels in 4 minutes from Louvre museum

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PARIS — In a minutes-long strike Sunday inside the world’s most-visited museum, thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre‘s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said. The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory and comes as staff complained that crowding and thin staffing are straining security.

The theft unfolded just 270 yards from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a professional “four-minute operation.”


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By THOMAS ADAMSON – Associated Press

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