Key facts
- European museum robberies are becoming more violent, involving guns, explosives, and axes.
- Criminals are increasingly recruited via social media on an ad hoc basis.
- Preferred targets include gold, jewels, and ancient Chinese porcelain due to high value and demand.
- The Louvre Museum heist in October 2025 involved the theft of €88 million worth of jewels.
- Europol suggests a shift towards 'crime-as-a-service' recruitment or exploitation of low-risk, high-profit potential.
Museum robberies across Europe are escalating in violence, with thieves employing firearms, explosives, and brute force to target high-value items like gold, jewels, and cultural artifacts, according to a Europol report. The agency has observed a shift from traditional, specialized art trafficking networks to more decentralized, opportunistic groups recruited through social media and instant messaging platforms. These new networks often have backgrounds in other criminal activities and operate on an ad hoc basis, sometimes on a 'crime-as-a-service' model. Precious metals and jewels are favored due to their intrinsic value and ease of resale, while artifacts like ancient Chinese porcelain are also in demand. Notable incidents include a €88 million jewel heist at the Louvre in October 2025 and the use of explosives in a theft at the Drents Museum in January 2025. Europol suggests that some criminal actors are realizing the high-profit, low-risk potential of museum heists.