Editor’s Note
This article reports on the promising initial assessment of the damaged crown of Empress Eugenie, following a high-profile heist at the Louvre. While the artifact suffered significant deformation, experts confirm its structural integrity allows for a full restoration, marking a critical first step in its recovery.
The Louvre Museum announced this Wednesday that the crown of Empress Eugenie, which suffered crushing damage and significant deformation during the “brutal” jewelry heist on October 19, 2025, has retained its near-total integrity, allowing for its complete restoration.
This is the main conclusion of the initial report prepared by the director and deputy director of the Louvre’s Department of Decorative Arts, Olivier Gabet and Anne Dion, the museum stated in a communiqué, detailing the damage suffered by the “iconic piece” that the thieves left behind in their escape with eight other jewels, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
The restoration of Empress Eugenie’s crown will be entrusted to an accredited conservator, following a tender process, in accordance with the Heritage Code, the Museums Law, and the Public Procurement Code, specified the world’s largest and most visited museum in its note. As part of this process, more detailed technical reports on the state of conservation will be prepared.
Given the “symbolic and unprecedented” nature of such a restoration, and the “remarkable specificity” of the object to be restored, the mission of the selected conservator will be supported by the creation of an advisory committee of experts.
Chaired by the director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, it will include Gabet and Dion, as well as a jewelry historian; a conservator in charge of Second Empire decorative arts at the Musée d’Orsay, a mineralogist, and an expert in historical metals, who will be joined by a representative from each of the five historic French jewelry houses (Mellerio, Chaumet, Cartier, Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels).
Recovered on the street, at the foot of the Galerie d’Apollon where the thieves perpetrated the robbery, Empress Eugenie’s crown survived the “brutal” blow suffered at the Louvre Museum and remained in the possession of the judicial police for one day for investigative purposes. A fragment of a palmette was found near the display case in which it was exhibited and which the thieves broke.
The crown, whose mount is flexible and light, suffered deformation, probably initially due to the tension it endured when being extracted from the display case through a relatively narrow opening made with an angle grinder, indicated the Louvre. This tension caused the hoops of the crown to detach, one of which had already been lost in the gallery. Subsequently, a violent impact likely crushed the piece, according to the report.
The crown originally featured eight diamond and emerald palmettes, alternated with eight golden eagles. Currently, only one of the eagles is missing. All the palmettes are present, although four have detached from their settings, some of them deformed. The globe of diamonds and emeralds is intact and still attached to the crown’s frame.
Originally composed of 56 emeralds, the crown still retains them all. Of the 1,354 diamonds, only about ten very small ones, which adorn the perimeter of the base, are missing, and nine have become detached but have been preserved, assured the museum.
While the shape of the crown has been altered, almost all its constituent elements are preserved. Only one of its decorative elements is missing. Therefore, its complete restoration will be possible without the need for reconstruction or recreation.
It was Napoleon III who commissioned Empress Eugenie’s crown from the emperor’s official jeweler, Alexandre Gabriel Lemonnier, who was tasked with creating two, one for the emperor and one for his wife, to be worn at the 1855 Universal Exposition.