By Alexander Hodi, Class of 2026

Editor’s Note: History Fellowship is a course in which students conduct independent, college-level historical research on a topic of their choice with close faculty mentorship. This paper was selected as one of the seven strongest from this year’s course.

On October 19, 2025, thieves stole some of France’s most historically and culturally significant artifacts from the largest museum in the world. Using only a glass cutter and a ladder, the robbers sliced open the window of the Louvre Museum’s Apollo Gallery and climbed inside. They spent 8 minutes pushing through crowds and clearing out the gallery, eventually making their way to their desired target. The thieves smashed the glass cases that held the French Crown Jewels and stole a variety of emerald and sapphire necklaces, diamonds, and Empress Napoleon’s crown. Though this event caught the attention of the world, it was not the only recent major art theft.  In 2021, burglars stole artwork by Vincent van Gogh from a museum in Amsterdam. In 2019, thieves broke into the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, leaving with two Rembrandt paintings. While these were all major art thefts, none of them compares to the largest museum heist in history. In fact, the value of the pieces stolen from the Louvre burglary was second only to one: the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft. During this theft, thieves broke into the Gardner Museum and stole 13 paintings worth more than 500 million dollars. Despite being the largest art theft in history, the case remains unsolved. 

Click here to continue reading: A New Amend: How Museum Security Has Changed in the Wake of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist