[Global Times special correspondent in France Dong Ming] The Louvre robbery shocked the world, including Hollywood-after all, this is the most popular plot of "bandit films". According to Variety, CNN produced a documentary "Stolen: The Stolen Crown Jewellery from the Louvre" while it was hot and aired on the evening of October 26 local time. The documentary traced the case and interviewed investigators, experts and people inside the Louvre to talk about how security had been ignored and "witnessed the world's most important museum turning into a crime scene." As a real case that occurred in the real world, many film and television elements familiar to the audience appeared in the Louvre theft case, which once again triggered the media and the audience to recall and think about such film and television themed works. French magazine Les Inrockuptibles joked: "Isn't the Louvre jewelry theft one of the best 'movies' of 2025?"
The "thief's hand" reaches out to art
The whole process of the Louvre robbery took only 7 minutes (only 4 minutes in the museum). The carefully selected night alarm system was shut down, the time when the museum just opened, thieves dressed in "yellow vests" pretending to be construction workers, and lifts, cutting tools and motorcycles prepared in advance are all reminiscent of the plot in the movie. "We all know what the Louvre is," laments well-known movie blogger Paul Keola. "Movies and pop culture have long'romanticized 'gangs of bandits. Audiences always love' Robin Hood characters played by stars such as Robert Redford to see how they fight against bad guys or faceless mysterious institutions."
In Hollywood works, there are too many such "thieves" and "elegant thieves" who steal art. For example, the billionaire played by Pierce Brosnan in "The Sky Network" reaches out to the Monet original works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for those works that money cannot buy. In Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and other big names gathered in "Ocean's Twelve", after the thieves "destroyed" the casinos in the previous film "Ocean's Eleven", their next target became European treasures; in its spin-off film "Concealment: A Beauty Trap", the thieves took a fancy to a diamond necklace worth US$150 million on a big star. When it comes to Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones's "The Sky Trap", Connery's graceful demeanor and Jones's graceful figure are even more unforgettable to the audience. In "The Big Deal", a collaboration between Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, the "thieves" steal the king's scepter from the indestructible safe at the customs. There is also the 1966 classic bandit film "Stealing the Dragon and Turning the Phoenix" co-authored by Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Not only was it filmed outside the Louvre, but the key prop is also a "Venus" statue that is difficult to distinguish between real and fake.
Not just popular in Hollywood.
The Indian Times said, “For decades, Hollywood has been mocking the scenes of theft films: impossible plans, frequent members of the situation, subtle times, the ‘cat-mouse game’ after the incident ... When detectives searched for clues, the city chased the thieves, in fact, in some films, the ‘script’ of the Louvre theft case had long existed.”
Not only is Hollywood good at shooting bandit themes, but this commercial genre is also popular among filmmakers in other countries. "Crossing the World" directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung and Zhong Chuhong is a representative in the Chinese film. The characters in the film target famous paintings in French museums and castles.
The French, who have many museums such as the Louvre and Orsay, will not let go of such familiar themes. The New York Times said on the 24th that the Louvre robbery is reminiscent of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard's masterpiece "Outlaws". In this 1964 film, three young robbers run wild in the Louvre. Others compare it with Netflix's French series "Yasen Robin" launched in 2021, in which the protagonist stole a precious necklace from the Louvre.
French filming of Mona Lisa was stolen
The 1966 film, Mona Lisa's Theft, depicts how the most famous collections of the Louvre were stolen and lost. This absurd comedy adapted from the true story of an Italian worker's theft of Mona Lisa in 1911, the film tells the story of a man obsessed with art that lost the legendary painting of Da Vinci and stole it. In a hotel, a young woman who looked like the character of the Mona Lisa turned the soul of the man and disrupted his escape plan. In the end, the protagonist abducted the woman and returned the true story of Mona Lisa.
In the 2017 French film "The Mystery of the Louvre", Queen Eugenie's jewelry was also stolen, which coincided with the Louvre robbery; Last year, France also remaked the classic Japanese comic "Three Sisters in Cat's Eye", and the targets of female cat burglars are also major French museums represented by the Louvre.
Of course, as a fictional work, the thieves often give reasonable motives and results, either theft comes wrong, the thieves are to punish the wicked and revenge; or "theft is worthwhile", the treasure is eventually donated or returned. but the reality is not so "romantic" - a week after the Louvre robbery, the French police arrested two suspects of involvement in the robbery, waiting for their final fate is trial and jail.