Jewellery worth €4.5m stolen from France's Lalique Museum

Twenty-seven pieces of jewellery worth more than 4.5 million euros (about 5.1 million U.S. dollars) were stolen from the Lalique Museum in northeastern France early Sunday, French media reported on Monday, citing local prosecutors, reported Xinhua. The burglary occurred at approximately 5:25 a.m. local time (0325 GMT) at the museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of the Grand Est region. According to the reports, three suspects forced open an emergency exit and a fire door to enter the museum's main exhibition hall. They smashed six display cases and escaped with 27 pieces of jewellery within minutes. Prosecutor Francois Antona said that an investigation into organized gang theft has been launched. The case has been entrusted to the Strasbourg Criminal Investigation Department and the Bas-Rhin Gendarmerie, with support from the Central Office for the Fight against Illegal Trafficking in Cultural Property. French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard expressed her support for the museum teams and law enforcement forces mobilized to recover the stolen works on social media platform X. The museum said that it would remain closed in the coming days to ensure a safe reopening. Franck Leroy, president of the Grand Est region, described the burglary as "an unacceptable attack on our heritage" in a Facebook post. Opened in 2011, the Lalique Museum is dedicated to the works of renowned French glassmaker Rene Lalique.