Woman charged with theft of gold nuggets from French museum

A Chinese woman has been charged in the September theft of gold nuggets from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, French prosecutors announced Tuesday. The announcement came as officials face scrutiny for this week’s heist of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum.

The 24-year-old woman, who was not identified, was hit with the charges of theft in an organized gang—which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison—and criminal conspiracy and she has been placed in pre-trial detention, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release. She was charged by an investigating judge on October 13.

The theft was reported the morning of September 16 when cleaning staff found debris left during the heist and alerted a museum conservator, who discovered that the gold nuggets were missing, prosecutors said.

Security footage showed the alleged thief breaking into the museum shortly after 1 a.m. The thief was seen remaining inside the museum for about four hours and left just before dawn.

At the scene, investigators found an angle grinder that he been used to cut open two doors as well as a blow torch that had been used to break into the display case housing the gold in the mineralogy gallery. They also found a screwdriver, three gas canisters used to fuel the blowtorch and saws.

The suspect left French territory later that day, prosecutors said. She was arrested in Barcelona on September 30 on a European arrest warrant and transferred to French custody that day.

At the time of her arrest, the suspect attempted to dispose of pieces of melted gold, prosecutors said. Telephone investigations later revealed that she was preparing to return to China.

The stolen items included nuggets discovered during the California gold rush, as well as gold from the Ural Mountains gifted to the museum by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in 1833.

Other items taken included a piece of quartz rich in gold from Guyana, discovered in 1883, a massive gold nugget weighing more than 11 pounds discovered in Australia in 1990 and gold from Bolivia bequeathed to the Academy of Sciences in the 18th century.

In total, the gold stolen is estimated to weigh more than 13 pounds with an estimated financial loss to the museum of €1.5 million, or about $1.7 million, corresponding to the market value of the gold, prosecutors said.

While the heist did not include any art items, the theft highlights the security challenges faced by French institutions, especially amid increased scrutiny in the wake of the burglary at the Louvre.