The Parisian Public Prosecutor's Office said it had opened an investigation into suspected "organised theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime".

Thieves reportedly stole nine pieces from the jewelry collection of Napoleon and the Empress in the Louvre, using a basket lift to reach the museum on Sunday morning.

The heist occurred in the Galerie d’Apollon, a vaulted hall in the Denon wing that displays part of the French Crown Jewels beneath a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist, according to the...