It was the most prosaic of equipment for the grandest of heists: a ladder, propped right under the noses of French guards.

It sounds like the plot of a heist movie. On October 19, priceless items of jewellery and royal regalia were stolen, in broad daylight and in a matter of minutes, from the Louvre’s gilded Gallery of ...

A legendary jewel of the Hapsburg dynasty — not seen since 1919 and thought lost, stolen or recut — has actually been safe in ...