The Louvre Heist, One Year On: Eight Jewels, No Trail

[THE HEIST] Under eight minutes.

• A year ago, at about nine-thirty on a Sunday morning, two men rode a basket lift up the outside of the Louvre, cut through a window into the Galerie d'Apollon, and walked out less than eight minutes later with eight pieces of France's crown jewels, worth about $102 million.

[THE INVESTIGATION] No trace of the jewels.

• Four men accused of the theft are in jail awaiting trial.
• About a hundred investigators have searched their homes, their garages, and their cellars, and found nothing.

[STILL MISSING] The stones may be recut.

• Experts fear the stones have already been pried out of their settings and recut, which would make them almost impossible to trace.

[NOT STOLEN] Three famous diamonds.

• The author of this story photographed three diamonds in that same room ten months before the theft, the Regent, the Sancy, and the pink Hortensia.
• They weren't stolen, but they give you a sense of how opulent the stolen pieces were.

[THE ROOM TODAY] Nothing at eye level.

• The gallery reopened this summer with every jewel removed.
• The diamonds that survived will go on show in a new room, one with no windows.