The crown of French Empress Eugenie, dropped during a Louvre heist, is nearly intact and will be fully restored to its original state
PARIS: The crown of French Empress Eugenie, dropped by fleeing thieves during a brazen robbery at the Louvre last year, is nearly intact and will be fully restored.
The museum confirmed the piece was “badly deformed” but remains “nearly intact” and can be restored to its original state “without the need for reconstruction”.
The crown was damaged when thieves tried to remove it through a narrow hole they had sawed in its display case.
It retains all 56 of its emeralds and all but 10 of its 1,354 diamonds.
Only one of the eight golden eagles that adorned the crown is missing.
An expert committee led by the museum’s president, Laurence des Cars, will supervise the restoration.
The restoration will be carried out by a qualified expert chosen through a competitive selection process.
Authorities have arrested all four alleged members of the heist crew but have not found the mastermind or the remaining jewels.
The thieves made off with an estimated EUR 88 million in jewels from the famed Paris museum last October.
They dropped the empress’s diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they escaped, leaving it crushed and broken.
Eight other items of jewellery were stolen, including a diamond-studded tiara that belonged to Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.
Investigators have yet to locate the other jewels but recovered the dropped crown.
