They pulled off the ‘heist of the century’ at a Paris museum—but no one noticed until the janitors spoke up

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, thieves slipped into the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and walked away with treasures valued at more than $640,000.

The stolen objects included rare gold nuggets dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, pieces museum staff described as “priceless.” What makes the story even more shocking is that the theft only came to light when the museum’s cleaning crew arrived for work and noticed the display cases were empty.

A gallery shut down indefinitely

The heist forced the museum to immediately close its Geology and Mineralogy Gallery, the wing where the stolen artifacts were on display. Officials say it will remain closed to the public until further notice.

This blow comes just weeks after the institution suffered a cyberattack in July, which compromised its security infrastructure. According to Le Parisien, the incident left the museum’s alarm and video surveillance systems malfunctioning, creating the perfect window of opportunity for thieves.

A troubling trend in French museums

The robbery is part of a larger wave of cultural thefts shaking France. On September 4, another museum reported the loss of three extraordinary objects: two medieval plates from the 14th and 15th centuries and an 18th-century goblet. Their combined value? More than $6.9 million.

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