Louvre robbery: Who's behind the heist of the century? The Pink Panthers, commissioned by a collector or simply thieves of jewels and precious metals.

As the hours pass, hopes of recovering the jewels stolen from the Louvre Museum and identifying those responsible for what is already being called the "heist of the century" are fading, despite promises from President Emmanuel Macron .

A large-scale operation is underway, involving around 60 investigators from the Paris criminal investigation department and the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property. However, the ease with which a gang of four individuals managed to escape with the valuable artifacts, aboard two scooters in the middle of a Sunday morning, has turned the investigation into a race against time.

Although there was talk of a possible collaboration with the Tel Aviv-based Israeli intelligence firm CGI Group , credited with solving the 2019 billion euro heist in Dresden, the museum's management quickly denied having requested its involvement.

An international gang behind the robbery?

"All possibilities are open," declared Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau . "We do not rule out that the theft was commissioned by a collector, which would increase the chances of recovering the jewels in good condition. But it is also possible that the perpetrators were only after the precious metals, perhaps to launder drug money."

Beccuau also doesn't rule out the possibility of "foreign interference," although he clarifies that this is not, for now, the main hypothesis.

The museum remained closed throughout the day on Monday to allow forensic examinations to continue and to interview staff, amid suspicions that the thieves had an accomplice on the inside.

Some witnesses claim to have heard the attackers speaking a foreign language, rekindling as-yet-unconfirmed rumors about the possible involvement of the "Pink Panthers," a notorious gang originally from the former Yugoslavia and composed mostly of former soldiers from Serbia and Montenegro.

The Pink Panthers' seal

Interpol gave them their nickname after a spectacular robbery in London in 2003, when a diamond was hidden in a cream jar, emulating a scene from the film series starring Inspector Clouseau.

Their robberies are renowned for their extreme speed, surgical precision, minimal physical violence, and their targeting of extremely high-profile targets—just like the Louvre.

Stolen jewelry is often dismantled and sold in parts on the international market. The network, considered one of Europe's most sophisticated criminal organizations, reportedly comprises hundreds of members and is credited with dozens of attacks across the continent.

In France, he is linked to robberies at the Harry Winston jewelry store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris ($36 million in 2007 and $73 million in 2008), the Carlton Hotel in Cannes in 2013 ($53 million), and the Chaumet jewelry store near the Champs-Élysées in June 2021 ($2 million). In all these cases, the loot was never recovered.