- The iconic Louvre Museum was the site of a major heist late last month, in which $102 million worth of jewels were stolen.
- Earlier this week, photos of two alleged "suspects" went viral and received a ton of love online for how attractive the supposed offenders were.
- The photos actually trace back to the early 2010s.
If you've been online at all in the last few weeks, you'll have seen and heard plenty about the Louvre jewel heist. Honestly, the whole thing is like something straight out of a dramatic movie.
Somehow missed it? Here's a quick recap... On October 19, a group of thieves broke into the world-famous gallery in broad daylight and robbed a selection of historical jewels. Although pretty much priceless, due to their historic nature, the stolen gems are estimated to be worth €88 million ($102 million).
In the weeks since, social media has been awash with theories about the heist, including who did it and – until now – how they got away with it. The robbers' luck seems to have come to an end, though. It was recently confirmed by the Paris public prosecutor that a number of suspects have been apprehended and arrested.
Following the arrests, two mugshots have been doing the rounds online, garnering a lot of attention because, well, the suspects are pretty hot. "It is so French of them to both be this hot," activist and actor Jameela Jamil said in response to the two mugshots, with someone else commenting: "Why do they look like Calvin Klein models?"
Hot as they may be, however, the Louvre heist mugshot men don't actually have anything to do with the jewel heist – as we've discovered...
Who are the Louvre heist mugshot men?
A viral post on Instagram, shared earlier this week, included photos of two men reportedly arrested as part of the Louvre jewel heist.
"Paris police have arrested two men suspected of stealing priceless jewels from the Louvre Museum," the caption read. "The pair were captured after a late-night chase through the streets near the iconic glass pyramid. Authorities say the investigation is ongoing as they work to recover the missing artifacts."
The comments section was quickly filled with favorable reactions to the photos. "They are both works of art!" one person commented, echoing Jameela's own thoughts. "Are they single?" another Instagram user asked, with a third adding: "These guys are also stealing hearts."
But a quick Google reverse-image search dashes all these hopes, we're sorry to tell you! As it turns out, neither of the photos of the Louvre heist mugshot men is recent, and both can be traced back to the early 2010s. The 'suspect' on the left in the viral Instagram post actually featured in this 2013 Buzzfeed roundup of "the hottest guys ever arrested", with imagery sourced from hotandbusted.tumblr.com – what a throwback!? The article jokingly states that this guy was charged with "grand heart theft in three different states".
As for the other 'suspect', he featured in a "felon crush Friday" roundup published on Gossip On This in 2014. The watermark on the image says it was taken by the Broward Sheriff's Office, which is located in Broward County, Florida... a long way from the Louvre in Paris.
More evidence that the viral 'suspects' in those mugshots have nothing to do with the heist is this post on Instagram, which features a mugshot of Gossip Girl's Chase Crawford. "The Luigis of France! I might consider mercy-fucking them..." the caption read, to which someone replied: "Oh, that's Chace Crawford’s mugshot from 2010."
"Nate Archibald? Was Chuck Bass involved, too?" another Instagrammer replied, as someone else chimed in with: "Why is Nate here?"
Who are the real Louvre jewel heist suspects?
So far, we don't have the full details on who the Louvre jewel heist suspects are, and the Parisian prosecutor certainly hasn't released photos of them. Official mugshots of the real Louvre heist suspects have not been released by the public prosecutor, in line with French law. That law requires information about investigations to be kept secret to avoid compromising police work. Only the prosecutor, who in this case is Laure Beccuau, may speak publicly about investigations.
We do know (per Fox News) some limited details about the arrested suspects, though. These are the facts on the four arrested Louvre jewel heist suspects:
- A 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France was arrested on 25 October at Charles de Gaulle Airport
- A 39-year-old French man from the Aubervilliers suburb, who was known to police for several thefts, was also arrested on 25 October
- A 37-year-old man with a record of theft living in the La Courneuve suburb was arrested on 29 October
- A 38-year-old woman who is the longtime partner of the 37-year-old suspect
Speaking about the suspects, Beccuau said (via CNN): "They are clearly local people."
"I don't find it that surprising," the prosecutor replied when asked if the profile of the suspects is unusual. "What we are seeing now is that people with no significant association with organized crime are progressing relatively quickly to committing extremely serious crimes."
