Overview

• A break-in was detected on Sept. 16 at the National Natural History Museum in Paris, with intruders reportedly using an angle grinder and a blow torch to gain access.
• The stolen items are specimens of native gold from the national collections, which the museum values for their heritage significance beyond raw material price.
• Director Emmanuel Skoulios said the perpetrators were an extremely professional team that targeted specific items with precision.
• An unnamed police source told Le Parisien that alarms and surveillance were disabled by a July cyberattack, and investigators are examining whether that vulnerability was exploited.
• The mineralogy gallery has been closed for inventory checks, and the case is being viewed alongside recent thefts at French museums, including a high-value porcelain heist in Limoges and a smash-and-grab at Paris’s Cognacq-Jay Museum.