One of the most famous art heists in history was the 1911 theft of the "Mona Lisa." The 16th-century Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian immigrant who'd worked at the Louvre as a handyman and who smuggled the painting out of the building after hours by removing it from its frame and hiding it beneath his work coat.

French police stepped up the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a daylight robbery.

The thieves used an electric ladder placed on the back of a truck to access the second-floor balcony of the Louvre.