If You're Obsessing Over The Louvre Heist, Watch This Hit French Netflix Series

If you're fascinated by the recent Louvre heist, I've got weirdly great news for you: There's a French Netflix show where the protagonist steals jewels from the Louvre in the very first episode.

Let me back up. Before 10 in the morning Central European Summer Time on Sunday, October 19, 2025, a group of thieves robbed the Louvre Museum in Paris using a monte-meuble, a machine familiar to Parisians across the city because it's used to hoist huge pieces of furniture into the windows of buildings that have narrow staircases and no elevators. After breaking into a window, clad in balaclavas and dressed to look like museum security thanks to some vests, the robbers managed to grab a ton of historic French jewels, including a tiara that belonged to Napoleon III's wife Empress Eugénie, a brooch and jewel-encrusted decorative bow that also belonged to the empress, jewels that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte and were given to his second wife, and a set made with sapphires that included a tiara, a necklace, and earrings. A crown belonging to Empress Eugénie that's covered in jewels and made of gold was found in the aftermath of the gang's great escape, indicating that they either abandoned or dropped the high-ticket item; it's now extremely damaged. 

Sorry, but this is so metal, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened ... especially because the entire heist is straight out of a movie or TV show. Specifically, it seems almost lifted from "Lupin," the thriller series helmed by George Kay and François Uzan that stars French superstar Omar Sy. Sy's character, Assane Diop, a master thief inspired by the fictional master thief Arséne Lupin, robs the Louvre in the pilot, so that's pretty spot-on!

When we first meet Assane Diop, the son of a Senegalese immigrant who came to France as a child, he's struggling, to put it lightly. Unable to maintain alimony payments to his estranged wife Claire Laurent (Ludivine Sagnier) and their son Raoul (Etan Simon) and chased through Paris by loan sharks, Assane proposes a plan to rob the Louvre and steal a diamond necklace that's said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette. There's a deeper intention behind Assane's plan, though, and it has to do with his late father Babakar Diop (Fargass Assandé), who worked as a driver for the wealthy and famous Pellegrini family in France.

As we learn in flashbacks, a young Assane frequently accompanied his father to work while Babakar drove the Pellegrinis and witnessed his father's mistreatment at the hands of the rich family, especially when it came to the patriarch, Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre). Unfortunately for Babakar, Hubert once owned the very necklace that's now being auctioned at the Louvre (a major difference here is that the necklace isn't part of the Louvre's collection, but still) and, concocting a ruse to get insurance money for the important item, Hubert hides it and then frames Babakar for the theft.

Hubert's slightly kinder wife Anne (Nicole Garcia) convinces Babakar to plead guilty for a lesser sentence, and even though Babakar passes a coded note to Assane (in an "Arséne Lupin" book, giving the future thief his inspiration) proving his innocence, he ultimately takes his own life in prison. Understandably, Assane wants revenge and the necklace. So how does he do it?

To be totally fair to the gang who quite literally rolled up to the most famous museum in the world, cut open some windows, and made off with handfuls of priceless French hewels, Assane Diop's Louvre robbery on "Lupin" was considerably more sophisticated (and even involves a major double-cross to boot). Assane poses as a wealthy businessman under the fake name "Paul Sernine," which is an anagram of "Arséne Lupin," and bids on the necklace, winning it fairly during the auction and being escorted to the vault that houses the necklace alongside the auctioneer and the loan sharks themselves, who are disguised as museum security guards with full clearance to roam the Louvre. The loan sharks beat up both the auctioneer and "Paul" but do, in fact, intend to steal the necklace for themselves and ditch Assane.

During the beating, Assane manages to switch the necklace with a replica, leaving the loan sharks with a fake, making his "winning bidder" Paul look like he was personally robbed, and quietly leaving the Louvre with the real necklace. How? Assane had a second secret identity as a Louvre janitor and is able to leave the museum without fanfare in a cap and a uniform pushing a trashcan, which contains this multi-million euro necklace. It's simply the first step in Assane's larger plan to toy with and destroy the Pellegrinis, and with all due respect to these real-life robbers, it's a fascinating and basically flawless heist. (As of this writing, the thieves haven't been caught yet, so only time will tell if they "succeed," so to speak.) Hilariously, items were stolen from the set of "Lupin" itself at one point, bringing this all full circle.

"Lupin," which is returning for a fourth season in 2026, is streaming on Netflix now — and it's so good! Go watch it!