Last month's daylight robbery at the Louvre in Paris has yet to see the stolen $100 million in jewels recovered, despite arrests in the case. The heist, executed by four suspects who lifted French crown jewels from the museum's Apollo Gallery and fled on scooters, resembled something out of a Hollywood script. Carlos Rivas, an associate professor at The Ohio State University, told Ohio State News that the robbers "break in, walk up and break the glass, take the jewels. Then they walk out the same way they came in."
Rivas expressed a specific interest in the Colombian emerald necklace and earrings set, once the possession of Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife, tracing back to mines that were fueled by slave labor. Online discussions have alluded to the heist as karma for historic thefts, a sentiment echoed by Rivas who said, "People would say, ‘These things were stolen 300 years ago by the French monarchy, and now they’ve been stolen again.’" However, he challenged this notion by stating, "These things haven't been returned ... We assume they were stolen for the black market. This isn't a case of repatriation," according to Ohio State News.
The conversation naturally gravitates toward the topic of repatriation, as this incident unfolds against the backdrop of intensified debates over the ethics of how museums acquire and retain artifacts. Rivas detailed the complex lineage of the emeralds, "mined by the Spanish during colonial times, then Dutch merchants sold them in Amsterdam and then the stones were further dispersed throughout Europe, landing in the French court," according to his knowledge as stated by Ohio State News. The lack of a repatriation claim from Colombia complicates the discourse even further, punctuating the ambiguity of rightful ownership. "It's complicated," Rivas concluded. "Who would they be returned to today?"
Rivas pointed out the growing trend in art thefts to target jewels and other commodities that can be easily disassembled and sold off, noting that, unlike a painting, crown jewels can be stripped of their individual parts, rendering them hard to trace. Nevertheless, Rivas remains hopeful, speculating, "I think we'll see them again." If not intact, Rivas suggested that they could be exhibited as incomplete, illustrating their new narrative - the heist now a part of their history. "I like the idea of displaying them incomplete or in a re-creation that shows what was lost," Rivas expressed to Ohio State News. "The heist is part of their history now."
