A French ceramics museum was burgled overnight on Wednesday, September 3, with losses estimated at €9.5 million, local authorities said. The Adrien Dubouche National Museum, located in the central French city of Limoges, holds around 18,000 works, including the largest public collection of Limoges porcelain, according to its website.
Thieves snatched three porcelain works, which are classed as national treasures, in a heist, the museum said. The suspects entered the historical gallery where they made off with "two particularly important dishes of Chinese porcelain (...) dating from the 14th and 15th centuries" and an 18th-century Chinese vase, all designated as "national treasures," the museum added.
The city's mayor, Emile Roger Lombertie, spoke to reporters about the theft, saying: "The security system worked, but it may need to be reviewed."
Security guards sounded the alarm, with police quickly arriving on scene, but the suspects had already fled, said Limoges public prosecutor Emilie Abrantes. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into "aggravated theft of cultural property exhibited in a French museum, committed in a group and with damage to property."
The stolen pieces were on loan from a private collection for a temporary exhibition, French magazine Paris Match reported.
"All the world's major museums have had items stolen at one time or another," Lombertie further told reporters. He then floated a theory behind the theft: "It is likely that collectors are giving orders to steal these items and are turning to high-level criminals," he said.
There were two major thefts at French museums in November 2024, one at the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris, when four people smashed a display with axes and bats in broad daylight while visitors looked on before making away with snuffboxes and other precious artefacts.
The next day, jewelry worth several million euros was taken in an armed robbery at the Hieron Museum in eastern France.