Louvre Museum: Stripped of its treasures, the Apollo Gallery reopens 9 months after Burglary

Nine months after the spectacular burglary at the Louvre, during which the French Crown Jewels were stolen using an angle grinder, the Apollo Gallery reopens its doors to the public, in the presence of Minister Catherine Pégard.

The 60-meter-long space, located on the first floor of the Denon Wing, will no longer display its precious objects and will instead return to its original 17th-century purpose as a “ceremonial gallery.” Visitors will be able to admire an exceptional decor consisting of 41 paintings, 36 sculptural ensembles, and 28 tapestries, depicting the sun god Apollo accompanied by his muses.

“This is our very own Hall of Mirrors, with these ceilings created by Le Brun and continued by several generations of 17th-century painters up to Delacroix. We want visitors to experience it as the most opulent room in the Louvre and to rediscover a bit of the palace beneath the museum,”Christophe Leribault, the current president of the Louvre—appointed to replace Laurence des Cars—told Le Parisien.

As for the pieces that were not stolen, they will be displayed in“a windowless vault in another part of the museum,” the museum’s president explained.

To date, the French Crown Jewels, estimated to be worth 88 million euros, remain missing. The two suspects who were arrested, Abdoulaye N. (40) and Ghelamallah A. (36), have still not revealed the identity of the mastermind behind the operation.