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Louvre heist to be turned into film

Movie project is in development, though neither title nor cast announced, reports a magazine

By AFP
May 26, 2026
A tourist rests in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum, near the Louvre Pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, in Paris on April 28, 2026.— AFP
A tourist rests in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum, near the Louvre Pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, in Paris on April 28, 2026.— AFP 

Last year’s brazen robbery of the Louvre — when thieves made off with jewellery worth some $100 million — is set become a movie, a publisher said on Tuesday.

French director Romain Gavras — whose work includes the 2025 Hollywood film "Sacrifice" starring Anya Taylor-Joy and music videos including most recently a hypnotic schoolboy choreography for GENER8ION — will draw inspiration from the investigative book "Main basse sur le Louvre" (literally "A grab at the Louvre").

Film rights to the book about the October 19, 2025 heist had been sold to the production company Iconoclast, the Flammarion publishing house said.

The book, written by three journalists, from French dailies Le Parisien and Le Monde, and weekly glossy magazine Paris Match, is to hit bookstores on Wednesday.

According to trade magazine Le Film Francais, the movie project is in development, though neither the title nor the cast has been announced.

The Louvre heist sent shockwaves around the world and sparked a security crisis within the world-famous museum that ultimately led to the replacement of its director, Laurence des Cars.

After seven months of investigation, and despite the arrests of the main suspects, the jewels have still not been found.

The authors said their apparent disappearance "has become a dense mystery, a puzzle that has plunged investigators into deep confusion".

The heist illustrates how "the theft of artworks has become a business like any other for many criminals", they say. "The criminal underworld has found a new cash cow."