MON DIEU

Louvre Recovers Rothschilds’ Renaissance Armor Stolen Four Decades Ago

The ceremonial helmet and breastplate were identified in the collection of a French family.

The Louvre has recovered two pieces of Renaissance armor stolen nearly 40 years ago. Thieves took the ceremonial helmet and breastplate on May 31, 1983, in the middle of the night, and they ended up in the private collection of a family living in Bordeaux. In January, when the family planned to put the armor up for auction, experts identified the antiquities, originally donated to the Louvre by the Rothschild family in 1922, as those that had been stolen. “The Louvre is delighted that these two pieces of Renaissance armor have been found thanks to the work of investigators,” the museum said in a statement Saturday. Police are probing how the 16th-century pieces came to the family, as the burglars haven’t been caught or even publicly identified. Authorities called the heist “an enigma.”