Why French Museums Keep Getting Robbed

Almost exactly a month ago, thieves raided the Louvre Museum in Paris, and in broad daylight, made off with millions of dollars worth of jewels. They apparently used a mobile, exterior freight elevator, if you will, to get up to the Apollo Room. Two people dressed in workers' vests cutting the glass and grabbing the jewels. Getting away with an estimated a $102,000,000 worth of jewelry in just seven minutes. While the world's eyes were still on the Louvre, the mayor of a small French town got some surprising news. She received a call from the director of the local museum who informed, them that the local museum had been robbed too, that a collection of gold coins had disappeared, during the night. And, the museum is called the Musee du Lumiere du Nido. And so it's a museum which is dedicated to this, French philosopher. And, museum is really kept by the city. Langue is a town of roughly 8,000 people, about a three and a half hour drive from Paris. The robbery at the museum there, happening so soon after the Louvre heist, hit the local community hard. The Louvre heist happened, like, on a Sunday morning, and that, robbery was on the evening of that same Sunday. So just less than twenty four hours. Oh, wow. Basically the same day. Basically the same day. Yeah. Two museum robberies within a day of each other. And it turns out, those heists were just the tip of the iceberg. Since September, six museum were hit, but one of them was hit twice, so that would make seven. Mhmm. And over the past year, it would be nine in France alone. You heard that right. Nine heists in a single year, seven of them just in the past two months. Our colleague Noemi Biserb has been tracking these robberies. And what did you think when you figured out this when you started seeing this pattern? I was really surprised, actually, that well, it had become so common, actually, in France because Mhmm. The Louvre gets robbed. Everybody's paying attention. But, actually, it's been happening throughout the year in many places across France and has really started spreading to the rest of Europe. And now in France itself, we've seen this trend pick up over the past year and really accelerate in recent months. But the question is, why? Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, November 17. Coming up on the show, museum heists are on the rise in France. This episode is brought to you by HBO Max. Industry is back when a splashy fintech startup bursts onto the London scene. Harper and Yasmin are drawn into opposing Kinan Shipka, Max Minghella, and Charlie Heaton join Kit Harington in the cast for the wildest season yet. Season four of HBO's Industry premieres January 11 on HBO Max. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can …