A national treasure estimated to be worth millions of euros was stolen on Thursday from a sacred art museum in Paray-le-Monial, a small town in centre-east France, the town's mayor said on Friday, confirming a report in the regional press.
The robbers arrived at the Musée du Hiéron on motorcycles in the middle of the afternoon. Three of them, wearing helmets, entered the museum, which was open to the public, while a fourth kept watch outside, Mayor Jean-Marc Nesme said.
After firing shots, they headed for the museum's centrepiece, ‘Via Vitae’ (1904) by Parisian goldsmith Joseph Chaumet, which depicts the life of Jesus Christ. Classified as a national treasure by the Ministry of Culture, it is estimated by the mayor to be worth between €5 million and €7 million.
The armed robbers stole its gold and ivory statuettes, as well as emerald ornaments, after sawing through the armoured glass protecting the almost three-metre-high work with a chainsaw. They also sawed off part of the marble base.
The robbers then fled on motorcycles, throwing nails onto the road, thus neutralising two police vehicles that were in pursuit, a sign that the operation had been prepared, according to the gendarmerie.
"This is a great loss for Paray-le-Monial and for our national heritage," Jean-Marc Nesme lamented, regretting that the treasure had been “ransacked.”
Around twenty visitors were present on the ground floor of the museum at the time of the robbery, along with its staff, who are now "traumatised," said the mayor. They managed to escape, some taking refuge in a neighbouring house.
The Musée du Hiéron is one of France's oldest museums of sacred art. It had already been the scene of a burglary in 2017, when two Romay crowns by the goldsmith Paul Brunet were stolen, followed by an attempted burglary in September 2022.
