Elaine Sciolino, former Paris bureau chief for the ‘The New York Times,’ discusses the painful irony at the heart of Sunday’s grand theft.

PARIS (AP) — The director of the Louvre Museum on Wednesday acknowledged a ″terrible failure″ at the Paris monument after a stunning daylight crown jewel heist at the world’s most-visited museum, and said she offered to resign but it was refused.

Seven minutes is all it took for thieves to rob the world’s most famous museum Sunday. Here's a minute-by-minute breakdown of how it went down.

The Louvre Museum heist was a classic case of German efficiency. That at least is how a German freight lift manufacturer jokingly portrayed it in an ad.

Ever since a daring jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris on Oct. 19, the internet has turned into a global detective agency — with people everywhere trying to crack the case. Now, a photo of a man at

The precious artifacts snatched from Paris’s Louvre Museum on Sunday include an emerald necklace gifted by Napoleon to his second wife and other priceless crown jewels.

To the world, the news was astonishing, bordering on incomprehensible: Four Parisians were up and about early on a Sunday morning (well, 9:30). And not only that—they had robbed the Louvre.

PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates. Instinctively, he took the shot.