A Chinese woman has been arrested and charged over a theft of gold worth more than $1 million from Paris’ Natural History Museum, in one of several recent high-profile break-ins targeting French cultural institutions, a prosecutor said on Tuesday, October 21. The theft took place on September 16, a little over a month before an audacious jewelry heist at the world-famous Louvre Museum on Sunday. At the time, the Natural History Museum’s director said it had been performed by an “extremely professional team.”
A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on September 30 over the Natural History Museum break-in and theft of gold, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. The suspect was handed over to French authorities on October 13, and was charged with theft and criminal conspiracy and put in provisional detention the same day.
Investigations showed she had left France the day of the break-in and was preparing to return to China. At the time of her arrest, she was trying to dispose of nearly one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of melted gold pieces, the prosecutor said, without providing more details.
€1.5 million in damages
The stolen items included nuggets from Bolivia donated in the 18th century, from Russia’s Ural region gifted by Tsar Nicholas I in 1833, and from California dating to the gold rush era. A five-kilogram gold nugget from Australia, which was discovered in 1990, was also taken, Beccuau said.
Nearly six kilograms of native gold were stolen, with total damages estimated at €1.5 million ($1.7 million), she added, noting that the historical and scientific value of the pieces was “priceless.” Native gold is a metal alloy containing gold and silver in their natural, unrefined form.
The Natural History Museum curator discovered the theft of exhibited gold nuggets after a cleaner reported debris on site. Investigators found that two museum doors had been cut with a grinder, and the display case was breached using a blowtorch. Tools, including a blowtorch, grinder, screwdriver, gas cylinders and saws, were recovered nearby.
Surveillance footage showed a lone intruder entering the museum shortly after 1:00 am and leaving around 4:00 am, according to Beccuau. The investigation is ongoing, she added.
Police are also still on the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre Museum, in a spectacular daylight robbery on Sunday. The heist has reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums.
