European museums are increasingly being robbed using violence — Europol
Museum robberies in Europe are becoming increasingly violent: offenders threaten with weapons, attack staff, and use sledgehammers, axes and explosives to enter buildings or smash display cases. This is stated in a Europol report, The Guardian reports.
Changing methods
The EU police service noted that thefts from museums have traditionally been considered a non-violent form of organised property crime. At the same time, EU member states have recorded a shift in approaches towards violent and forceful methods.
According to Europol's assessment, this may indicate the involvement of new criminal networks focused on specific cultural property. Unlike typical participants in the illicit trafficking of cultural property, these individuals often have experience of involvement in other types of crime. Some people detained in recent cases, according to the agency, coordinated their actions on an ad hoc basis and may have been recruited locally through social media and instant messaging channels.
Targets and examples of attacks
Precious metals and jewellery are most often targeted. The report explains this by the rising value of gold and silver, which can be melted down, as well as the possibility of removing precious stones from their settings. Ancient Chinese porcelain may also interest thieves because of high demand and the possibility of easily selling it on the art market.
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In January 2025, a group of offenders used explosives to break into the Drents Museum in the Netherlands and stole several Dacian artefacts. Many of them were subsequently recovered. Europol also reported that, in some cases, attackers used firearms to intimidate guards and visitors, tied up employees or used physical force against them.
In 2024, four hooded people armed with baseball bats and axes stole seven items decorated with gold and diamonds from the Cognacq-Jay Museum of Art in Paris. During the Louvre robbery in October 2025, the offenders smashed a window, threatened guards and visitors, smashed display cases in the Apollo Gallery and stole jewellery estimated at approximately €88 million.
Europol noted that more evidence is needed for definitive conclusions. At the same time, the agency suggests that lower-level perpetrators may have been recruited opportunistically under a “crime-as-a-service” model, or that criminal networks from other criminal markets saw museum robberies as low-risk and highly profitable.
