The Louvre recovers armor pieces

After sunset on May 31, 1983, and before dawn the next morning, a showcase at the Louvre was broken into and two pieces of 16thcentury Italian armor were stolen in one of the most mysterious heists in the museum’s history.

Nearly 40 years later, the two items — a ceremonial helmet and a breastplate — were identified in the private collection of a family in Bordeaux, in western France.

The police are investigating how the items ended up in the family’s estate and who was responsible for the theft.

“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. It added that what happened on May 31, 1983, remained “an enigma,” with few details known to the general public.

The museum did not respond to requests for more information about the circumstances around the theft, the identity of the family who had the armor or what prompted the family to have their private art collection appraised.

In January, according to local news reports, the items turned up in Bordeaux. An auctioneer called on an expert in antiquities, who identified the items as the two that had been stolen from the Louvre in 1983, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported.

The two items, thought to have been made in Milan in the second half of the 16th century, will be put on display as soon as the museum reopens, the Louvre statement said.

They were bequeathed to the Louvre, one of the most visited museums in the world, by the Rothschild family in 1922.