French director Romain Gavras is set to bring the dramatic 2025 jewel heist at the Louvre Museum to the big screen, following the announcement that a newly published investigative book about the robbery will also be adapted into a documentary.
According to publisher Flammarion, film rights to the book Main basse sur le Louvre (A Grab at the Louvre) have been sold to the production company Iconoclast for a feature film adaptation, while documentary rights were acquired by a British producer.
The feature film will be directed by Gavras, the 44-year-old filmmaker known for works such as Athena and The World Is Yours. He is also the son of acclaimed filmmaker Costa-Gavras.
The book, released on Wednesday, was written by journalists Jean-Michel Décugis of Le Parisien, Jérémie Pham-Le of Le Monde, and Nicolas Torrent from Paris Match.
The authors reconstruct the 19 October robbery in detail, describing how the perpetrators arrived in broad daylight on the Seine-facing side of the Louvre building before entering the museum through a window using a lifting truck.
According to the account, two burglars smashed the window and two display cases containing historic jewellery using crowbars, while accomplices waited outside on scooters for the escape.
The masked thieves stole eight priceless jewels from the Apollo Gallery, including pieces once belonging to the wives of Napoleon I and Napoleon III. The estimated value of the stolen items was €88 million, and the entire operation reportedly lasted less than eight minutes.
The theft triggered an international media storm and plunged the world’s largest museum into crisis, eventually leading to strikes and the dismissal of Louvre director Laurence des Cars.
Despite a seven-month investigation and the arrest of several main suspects, the jewels have still not been recovered.
According to excerpts cited by AFP, the journalists described the fate of the missing treasures as ‘shrouded in mystery,’ saying the case had become a puzzle that continues to baffle investigators.
The authors argue that the robbery demonstrates how art theft has increasingly become a lucrative criminal enterprise, comparable to bank robberies or attacks on armoured cash transport vehicles.
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