Well planned, daring and focusing on big money, diamond jewelry heists are among some of the most high profile, headline generating crimes. The recent jewel heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris on October 19, 2025, was accomplished in a mere seven minutes. The thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery as the museum was opening, snagging 12 items including a tiara, a diamond bow brooch, and diamond brooch all of which had at one time belonged to Napoleon III’s wife Empress Eugenie. A sapphire tiara, necklace and earrings were also stolen along with a parure that was a wedding gift from Napoleon I to his second wife, Marie Louise.
This isn’t the first time that the Louvre has been robbed of jewels. In 1976 three masked men stole the diamond encrusted sword of Charles X, which was never recovered. In 1990, thieves entered the Louvre and absconded with a Renoir painting and 12 pieces of jewelry from the Roman era. But the Louvre isn’t the only high security operation to be robbed.
The American Museum of Natural History
On October 29, 1964, three surfer dudes from Florida, Jack (Murph the Surf) Murphy, Roger Clark and Allan Kuhn managed to break into the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Evoking a movie script, Clark was the lookout, while Murphy and Kuhn climbed a wall, scrambled up a fire escape and then swung from a rope into a fourth floor window conveniently located near the JP Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals. The burglars walked out with some very high profile gems including the 563-carat Star of India Sapphire, the 100-carat DeLong Star Ruby and the 116-carat Midnight Star Black sapphire. It was at the time the largest jewelry robbery to hit New York City. The surfing burglars were apprehended two days later, the jewels were recovered and the thieves spent two years in jail.
Antwerp Diamond Center
Despite occurring in 2003, the opening years of the new millennium, the Antwerp Diamond Center robbery was dubbed the “Heist of the Century”. If you want to talk about a heist straight out of a movie, this would be it. The brainchild of Leonardo Notarbartodo, the heist was four years in the planning by four people known as the “Gang of Turin”. Accessing the building involved getting past multiple layers of security, including heat sensors, doppler radar and a lock with millions of possible combinations. One of the gang members posed as a diamond dealer which allowed him easy access into the vault where the diamonds were stored. The gang stole around $100 million of diamonds, hauling them out in trash bags. The gang members were all found and jailed anywhere from four to ten years, however, most of the diamonds were never found.
Millennium Diamond Dome
The turn of the 21st century was cause for much celebration and in honor of the occasion, diamond giant, De Beers, held a special event to mark the moment. Held at London’s Millennium Dome the 203.04-carat Millennium Star diamond was on display along with 12 blue diamonds weighing 118-carats. In a dramatic operation, burglars, wearing gas masks, tossed a gas canister into the Dome to hide them as they entered the building. Once inside they smashed vitrines and just as they were about to grab the rocks and run, the cleaning crew, who were actually cops in disguise, sprang into action and stopped the theft. That was after apprehending a speedboat that was to be used for the get-away. The police had been tipped off about the heist and had replaced all the diamonds with look-alike imitations the night before, keeping the real diamonds safe.
Harry Winston Paris
In December of 2008, three women entered the Harry Winston boutique on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. No one gave them a second glance until they terrified the staff and customers with hand guns and grenades. It turned out the three women were actually men disguising themselves to avoid being identified. The trio of thieves took off with around $100 million worth of jewelry and watches. Some of the jewelry was recovered, but most was not. In 2015, eight people connected to the crime were convicted and sent to prison from nine months to 15 years.
Doris Payne
Born in the 1930s in Slab Fork, West Virginia, Doris Payne became a notorious, albeit, charming jewel thief, who stole diamonds for a living for some 60 years. Her story is not one of a big, impressive theft, instead Payne is remarkable for the longevity of her capers, lasting well into her 80s. Payne used her charm and personal style to gain the trust of jewelry store employees, who would willingly hand over the jewels which she would then stash and walk out the door. Law enforcement was constantly chasing after Payne, but she was able to elude them most of the time — she was arrested around 20 times and while she spent some time in jail, she would often convince the courts that she was just a helpless old lady. Once released from prison, Payne would go back to stealing jewelry. Among her more important thefts were a 10-carat diamond ring, valued at $500,000 that she lifted from Cartier in 1974, in 1999 she stole a diamond ring from Neiman Marcus and in 2010, she snagged a diamond ring from Saks Fifth Avenue in Palm Desert. Today, Payne is alive and in her 90s.
What happens to the jewelry once it is stolen? In the case of historic jewels such as those taken from the Louvre, there is no way they can easily be sold to any reputable auction house, dealer or retailer, as they will recognize the items. In some cases, the items are stolen for an unscrupulous collector and sold directly to that person. Generally, historic jewelry that has been stolen is taken apart, the stones are recut and then sold. For contemporary pieces the stones may be popped out of the settings and sold. Whether historic or contemporary, the metal is melted down, vanquishing these jewels from the world forever.
Top of page: Image by Katigori, courtesy Pixabay.
Authored by Amber Michelle