After sunset on May 31, 1983 and before dawn the next morning, a shop window at the Louvre was invaded and two pieces of 16th century Italian armor were stolen in one of the most mysterious robberies in the museum’s history.
Almost 40 years later, the two items – a ceremonial helmet and a breastplate – were identified in a family’s private collection in Bordeaux, in western France. Police are investigating how the items ended up on the family’s property and who was responsible for the theft.
“The Louvre is delighted that these two pieces of Renaissance armor have been found thanks to the work of researchers,” the museum said in a statement. He added that what happened on the night of May 31, 1983 remains “an enigma”, with few details known to the general public.
The museum did not respond to requests for more information about the circumstances surrounding the theft, the identity of the family who had the armor on or what prompted the family to have its private art collection evaluated.
In January, according to local news, the news appeared in Bordeaux. An auctioneer called an antiques expert, who identified the items as the two stolen from the Louvre in 1983, reported the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The two items, supposedly made in Milan in the second half of the 16th century, will be on display as soon as the museum is reopened, the Louvre statement said. They were bequeathed to the Louvre, one of the most visited museums in the world, by the Rothschild family in 1922.
The museum said in its statement that the 1983 theft “deeply disturbed all employees at the time”.
There have been several high-profile robberies at the Louvre. Probably the most famous occurred during the summer of 1911, when a museum employee stole Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The official, Vincenzo Peruggia, was arrested two years later while trying to sell the painting in Florence, Italy, and the painting was returned to the museum.
“I just had to choose an opportune moment and a mere twist would put the picture in my hands,” he said in court in 1913. He described how he snatched it from the wall and tucked it under his shirt. “Everything was done in a few seconds.” His motivation was to return the painting to his native Italy, he said.
Another high-profile theft occurred in 1976, when three thieves invaded the Louvre at dawn and stole a 19th-century diamond-studded sword belonging to King Charles X of France from a window. The thieves climbed a metal scaffold and broke the windows on the second floor, invading the museum. And in 1990, a painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir, “Portrait of a seated woman”, was cut from its frame and stolen from a gallery on the third floor.
Erin Thompson, associate professor of artistic crime, said it was not uncommon for museum curators to remain silent about thefts. “The museum’s curators thought that if they admitted to theft, they would be exposing a security breach or inspiring others to take action,” said Thompson. “But researchers in the past two decades have said, ‘Look, people, you won’t get anything back if people don’t know it’s missing.’ Therefore, museums are more reluctantly reporting thefts, which has resulted in much more recovery of things ”.
One risk of disclosing thefts is that if thieves discover that the authorities are after them, they are more likely to destroy, deconstruct or melt stolen works to avoid detection, Thompson said. A small percentage of stolen art is found, although studies show that about 40% of art stolen from museum windows is returned, as these works tend to be more recognizable and their theft is usually noticed immediately. When art is stolen from the warehouse, it can take years for museum staff to realize that the items are missing.