The beginning of “a new story”: the golden doors of the Apollon gallery of the Louvre reopened on Wednesday, nine months after the spectacular burglary of October 2025, but without any exposed object to favor, according to the museum, “its function” of yesteryear.
Around 9 a.m. (7 a.m. GMT), the two imposing doors of the resplendent room let in a stream of visitors, who have come to break the silence of the place which has remained closed for more than nine months.
Alison Leslie, a retired police officer from Edinburgh (Scotland), is among the first visitors to enter.
“I came here on purpose,” she told AFP. “It is magnificent, as I remember it,” continues the fifty-year-old, a regular visitor to the place and relieved to find her “favorite room”, even if empty.
Under his feet, a magnificent wooden floor with geometric patterns unfolds. Above her, paintings and decorations cover the walls and ceiling.
At the back of the gallery, a gate now blocks access to the balcony overlooking the Seine, the crossing point for the burglary commando who entered the museum on October 19, 2025 from the street using a bucket truck.
In a few minutes, eight jewels from the Crown of France disappear, including the tiara of Empress Eugénie, later found very damaged. Damage estimated at 88 million euros, according to the museum.
“It’s a new story for the gallery,” said Jenny Lee, a guide for Korean tourists, photographing the gate, the stigma of the burglary.
Like her, Gilda Valorc, 64, knew the gallery well before its closure.
She came early to “notice” the disappearance of the jewelry, which she found hard to believe. “It’s empty, very empty,” she says, secretly hoping that like the Mona Lisa, stolen in 1911, the missing jewels will one day find their place in the gallery.
The doors of the Louvre’s Apollon gallery have reopened, nine months after the spectacular burglary of October 2025, but without any objects on display.
AFP
“Not an empty gallery”
“If we look at things from the positive side, this room is so beautiful, that I think we will appreciate it more now,” says the cultural mediator.
The suspects were arrested, but the stolen items have not been found. The surviving jewelry was removed from the gallery.
“It is not an empty gallery, it is the gallery in its use, in its 17th century function, of wandering,” declared the director of the Louvre Christophe Leribault to the press, recalling that originally this “large gallery of apartments” only housed “a few pieces of furniture” and “carpets”.
The doors of the Louvre’s Apollon gallery have reopened, nine months after the spectacular burglary of October 2025, but without any objects on display.
AFP
“It’s an opportunity to rediscover its architecture and the decor of this gallery,” assured the art historian and former director of the Palace of Versailles. “This is our Hall of Mirrors.”
“We didn’t always look up at its decorations, attracted as we were by the Crown Jewels,” said the Minister of Culture, Catherine Pgard.
The burglary stunned the world and exposed a series of security flaws, including the outdated video surveillance system at the museum, the most visited in the world with nine million visitors in 2025.
It also sparked an internal crisis, leading to staff protests and the resignation of the museum’s president, Laurence des Cars.
In the coming months, the collection of gems which was previously exhibited in the Apollon gallery must be reinstalled in the Richelieu wing, in Second Empire display cases designed for it. Concerning the jewels, a high security room will have to be built before their re-exhibition, detailed Mr. Leribault.
