From royal vaults to private homes, 2025 proved a busy and audacious year for jewellery thieves, marked by elaborate planning, brazen execution and staggering losses. From meticulously planned museum raids to armed robberies, temple thefts and even swallowed jewels, 2025 underscored a sobering reality: whether safeguarded by advanced security systems or protected by faith and trust, valuable jewellery remained a prime target and thieves were willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get their hands on it. The year’s most dramatic moment came in October with a daring daylight raid at the Louvre Museum, a heist that captured global attention and set the tone for a year defined by high-value jewellery crimes.
But while thieves targeted priceless royal collections locked behind museum glass, religious institutions and ordinary households were also left counting their losses — proving that no space was beyond reach. In Durban, a resident turned to Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) in early November after returning home to discover that sacred and valuable items had been stolen from her outside temple. Rusa spokesperson Prem Balram said the items taken included steel pots, a brass lamp, a Ganesha murthi and a brass pot — objects of deep cultural and religious significance.
Just weeks earlier, in September, 10 armed suspects stormed a jewellery store at a Durban mall, held staff at gunpoint and fled with an undisclosed amount of jewellery. Rusa members dispatched to the scene confirmed that the suspects escaped in two vehicles. Internationally, the scale and sophistication of thefts escalated sharply.
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On October 19, thieves raided the Louvre in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal some of France’s most priceless royal jewellery. Two high-security display cases in the Apollo Gallery were targeted, and eight objects of immense cultural value were stolen, according to a French ministry statement.
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