Thieves have stolen jewellery and artefacts worth millions from the Lalique Museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, in the Bas-Rhin department of Alsace, eastern France, in the latest high-profile heist targeting the country’s cultural institutions.
The break-in occurred overnight on July 5, with masked thieves smashing display cases and making off with a number of Art Nouveau pieces by the French jeweller and glassmaker René Lalique (1860-1945).
Gendarmes have launched an investigation, but no arrests have been reported so far. The case has been handed to the Strasbourg section de recherche [serious-crime unit], according to the gendarmerie.
Around 20 unique crystal jewels were stolen from the museum, with an attributed value of about €4 million, according to a source close to the investigation cited by Le Parisien.
Due to the events, “the establishment will be closed in the coming days in order to plan a serene and safe reopening”, the museum said on social media.
Le Parisien reported that the intruders entered at around 5.30am, forcing the front door and breaking six display cases before heading straight for the room holding the jewellery. “An alarm went off, but by the time the security company had checked the alert, it was a cleaner, the first to arrive on the scene, who called the gendarmerie,” a source told Le Parisien.
This is the latest in a string of thefts affecting French museums and high-end jewellery collections in recent years.
The Lalique Museum, dedicated to the life and work of the artist known for his glass and jewellery creations, houses some 650 works by Lalique, one of the world’s largest collections of his pieces. Many of the stolen items are unique or of significant historical value, making recovery difficult.
René Lalique began his career as a jeweller. His earliest pieces reproduced the codes that characterised the jewellery of the late 19th century, using precious stones and metals. The mayor said the stolen pieces dated from this early Paris period and were effectively unsellable on the open market.
Opened in 2011, the museum sits in Alsace, in the same village as the Lalique factory, the brand’s sole crystal production site. Wingen-sur-Moder is a small commune of about 1,570 inhabitants about 55km northwest of Strasbourg.
France has seen several notable heists, including the 2013 Carlton Intercontinental robbery in Cannes, when a lone thief made off with jewels valued at about €103 million, and multiple museum break-ins, the most notable being the October 2025 raid on the Louvre, which caused a national scandal.
Experts have linked the trend to organised crime networks that target high-value, portable items which can be moved quickly on the black market.
COMMENT: A Pink Panther-style jewel heist in broad daylight at the Louvre has become a symbol of France’s deeper malaise, writes @DavidGHFrost. https://t.co/WaPk1j1geh
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 21, 2025
