Le Heist

Summary

The Daily (The New York Times) — "Le Heist"

Date: October 22, 2025
Host: Natalie Kitroeff
Guest: Catherine Porter

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily dives into the audacious daytime jewel heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where a group of thieves stole several priceless French crown jewels in a meticulously planned operation. Host Natalie Kitroeff speaks with reporter Catherine Porter to unravel how the theft unfolded, what was taken, and the broader cultural shock reverberating across France. The episode paints a vivid picture of the heist, the jewels’ historical significance, and the country’s emotional reaction to the loss.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How the Heist Unfolded

• The Setup (03:56–06:10):

  • At 9:30 AM on a quiet Sunday, a truck with a furniture ladder (a common Parisian sight) and two motorcycles arrive at the Louvre.
  • Two men in fluorescent vests place traffic cones to appear as public workers, drawing no suspicion.
  • Both men, masked, ascend via the electric ladder (“bucket”) to a second-floor balcony, a less-trafficked museum area.
  • Quote: “Nothing necessarily to see, except for the two men that then went up this electric ladder… masked. So that might have tipped you off.” — Catherine Porter (04:57)

• Breaking In:

  • They use angle grinders (handheld electric saws) to cut through a window into the iconic Apollo Gallery, home to the royal jewels of France.
  • Security guards, following protocol, immediately evacuate visitors, prioritizing safety over confronting the armed intruders.
  • Quote: “The protocol in the Louvre… is if you are confronted with an intruder that has things that seem like they could be weapons, your priority is protect people.” — Catherine Porter (07:04)

• The Heist Execution (08:09–09:35):

  • The thieves are calm, targeted, and execute their plan within minutes. They break open display cases with power saws, not appearing frantic or rushed.
  • CCTV captures their unhurried demeanor.

2. Escape and Loot

• Getaway Sequence (09:58–10:59):

  • The thieves exit via the same route and attempt, unsuccessfully, to set fire to the bucket truck to hide evidence.
  • Security guards chase them on foot; the thieves drop a high-value imperial crown, a vest, and a gas bottle before fleeing on motorcycles.
  • Quote: “One, you know, very juicy detail is that they dropped one of the nine things they originally grabbed.” — Catherine Porter (10:59)

• What Was Stolen? (11:17–14:50):

  • 8 of 9 intended jewels make it out with the thieves, including:
    • Emerald necklace and earrings given by Napoleon to his second wife (12:19)
    • Decorative bow with over 2,000 diamonds (12:20)
    • Pearl tiara and other opulent items
  • The thieves avoided the most famous and easily recognizable jewel, “the Regent” diamond, likely to avoid detection when selling.
  • Quote: “It would be just far too easy to identify and really hard to pawn off… so this is more of a commodity grab.” — Catherine Porter (13:36)

3. Value, Intent, and Investigator Theories

• Stolen jewels estimated at €88 million in value, but would be worth much less if broken down and melted.

  • Quote: “[The lead investigator] said, look, if you were to break them apart and melt them down, they’d be worth a lot less. In some ways, almost beseeching to the thieves, like, please don’t do this.” — Catherine Porter (15:22)

• The operation suggests professional criminals, likely a gang specializing in art/jewelry theft, aiming to sell components rather than whole pieces.

• Experts speculate that parts could be recut, “strung into a different kind of necklace,” and sold as untraceable gems, making recovery near impossible.

4. French Public Reaction and Cultural Impact

• Shock and Grief:
  • A mixture of disbelief, outrage at the breach of security, and national mourning for the loss of “priceless” heritage.
  • French politicians and media see the incident as a major failure, especially given the Louvre’s global reputation for security.
  • Quote: “The reaction… sounds like it’s one of a sense of self questioning… how could this possibly occur?” — Natalie Kitroeff (19:40)
  • Quote: “French people… they’re people who like to strike, they like to complain. They’re pretty critical, but they love their history. … This is like a very important cultural place in French people’s hearts.” — Catherine Porter (20:09)
• Historical Context:
  • France owns surprisingly few royal jewels, having auctioned off most after the Revolution—the Louvre has tried to buy lost pieces back for decades.
  • Quote: “The Louvre has been spending decades now trying to get them back.” — Catherine Porter (21:44)

5. Rise in Cultural Thefts

• String of museum break-ins in France this year, including thefts at the Natural History Museum and museums in Limoges; these often involve similar tools and tactics (22:05–23:01).
• No clear evidence that this is a coordinated effort, but a notable pattern has emerged. This particular heist is unique in its boldness and broad daylight timing.
• Cultural phenomenon compared to the TV series “Lupin,” yet even more brazen since it unfolded while the museum was open (23:35).

6. Investigation & Search for Suspects

• Now over 100 investigators are assigned, employing DNA, fingerprinting, and surveillance footage.
• The failed burning of the truck left evidence; police are interrogating the owner from whom it was stolen.
• The race is on to recover the jewels before they are dispersed irretrievably (25:01–25:48).

7. Possibility of Recovery

• Some optimism: France has a record of recovering stolen items, as in the Natural History Museum case. One suspect was already captured in Barcelona.
• However, the likelihood of recovering the jewels intact diminishes rapidly if the pieces are dismantled and sold as separate gems.
• Quote: “If they take each of those thousand plus diamonds off and make something entirely different out of it… then who would notice?” — Catherine Porter (26:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You could not make it up. It’s like a scene from a film.”
  – Natalie Kitroeff (02:25)
• “The heist of the decade. You know, it’s as bad as it gets.”
  – Catherine Porter (02:41)
• “If you were to break them apart and melt them down, they’d be worth a lot less. In some ways, almost beseeching to the thieves, like, please don’t do this.”
  – Catherine Porter (15:22)
• “This is like a very important cultural place in French people’s hearts. And I think people are appalled, shocked, and really grieving to a degree.”
  – Catherine Porter (20:09)
• “Yeah, I mean, I think it’s possible that we will never see those jewels again.”
  – Catherine Porter (26:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:56–06:10 — Step-by-step breakdown of the heist entry and method
• 08:09–09:35 — The theft: how the thieves acted and what was captured on video
• 09:58–10:59 — Escape, items dropped, and “juicy detail” about the imperial crown
• 11:17–14:50 — Discussion of specific stolen items and motives
• 15:05–15:44 — The value of the loot and the plea from investigators
• 18:31–20:09 — Public, official, and emotional French reaction
• 21:01–21:44 — The revolutionary history and France's lost jewels
• 22:05–23:57 — Overview of similar thefts and the “Lupin” comparison
• 25:01–25:48 — The state of the investigation and efforts to recover the jewels
• 26:01–27:28 — Will the thieves get away with it? The prospects for recovery

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Overall Tone

The episode presents a mix of awe, disbelief, cultural lament, and gritty journalistic investigation. Both host and guest maintain a conversational, deeply engaged approach, blending historical context, immediate fact-finding, and the human impact of the heist. The tone is at once urgent and reflective, capturing the shock of both Parisians and international observers at a crime that feels out of a movie but has profound real-world loss.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

This podcast is supported by nrdc, the Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC leverages the full power of the law to challenge corporations or government agencies illegally destroying the environment. Their legal team has blocked harmful oil and gas pipelines, stopped toxic mines and protected endangered species. Join the 3 million members backing NRDC's team to defend the environment for future generations. For Daily listeners, [e-mail] daily and your gift will be matched five times.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Hey, it's Natalie taking a quick second here because we here at the Daily are working on a fun little project, something that we'll share later as a special bonus episode for New York Times subscribers. The idea is simple. We're going to be talking to our fascinating colleagues here at the New York Times about who they are and how they do their jobs. And as a part of that project, we want to hear from you. What's the one question you've had for our colleagues but never gotten the chance to ask? We started with games, and now we're going to go to the Times restaurant critics Tejal Rao and Legaya Michonne. They're both new to the job and they've brought a lot of exciting changes. One is in California, the other one's in New York City. They're no longer dining anonymously and they're reviewing restaurants all over the country. I personally have a ton of questions for them, like, how are they going to get fair service from restaurants? How do they know they're not getting treated differently than us regular folks? How do they pick where to go? And also, most importantly, what's their most controversial food take? Get us your questions, please by leaving a message at 212-556-4000. Again, that's 212-556-4000. Okay, here's the show from the New York Times. I'm Natalie Kitoeff. This is the Daily the world's biggest.

[Catherine Porter]

Museum, a symbol of France.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Now a crime scene. Over the weekend, a group of thieves staged a remarkable heist at one of the world's most famous museums. A officials in Paris say the masked crooks used a basket lift and cutting.

[Catherine Porter]

Tools to just break into a gallery.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Stealing some of the most precious and culturally significant jewels in Europe in the middle of Paris in broad daylight.

[Catherine Porter]

It's like a scene from a film.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Yeah, you could not make it up.

[Advertisement/Promo Voice]

I thought it was a joke.

[Catherine Porter]

Like, no, not possible.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

As new details emerge about the brazen theft at the Louvre, the response in France has been a mix of shock, disbelief and fascination.

[Catherine Porter]

This is the heist of the decade you know, it's as bad as it gets. How could the world's most visited museum.

[Advertisement/Promo Voice]

Be robbed with such brazen audacity?

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Today, my colleague Catherine Porter explains how the robbery happened and why so many feel as though they may have just lost a piece of their history for Good. It's Wednesday, October 22nd. Katherine. Hi, how are you? This is probably the only taping where I've literally been like, I need us to begin so I can ask my questions right now. I mean, that's not true. It's not the only one. But this is a very special episode and I need to talk to you about this story. I have read everything about this heist, and I'm not satisfied. Still, I am.

[Catherine Porter]

I am ready for you.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Okay, good. Just to start, tell me exactly how a group of jewel thieves broke into the Louvre and stole these very precious items. Just start from the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened. As far as we know.

[Catherine Porter]

As far as we know, this heist started at 9:30 last Sunday morning. Typical kind of quiet Paris morning. And what we know is this truck that had a ladder attached to it rolls up to Louvre with two motorcycles. Now you might wonder, why is there a truck with a ladder on it? But in Paris, it's pretty common sight because this is how you move your furniture in and out of your apartments because of how difficult skinny the halls are. So it rolls up, parks right up against the building on the sidewalk, and two people pop out and they set out traffic pylons around the truck and they have fluorescent vests on, like public workers do.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

So like, anybody looking at this from the outside might think this is a completely normal scene. Nothing to see here.

[Catherine Porter]

Nothing necessarily to see, except for the two men that then went up this electric ladder to the balcony on the second floor were masked. So that might have tipped you off if you were there. But to be honest, this is the quiet side of the Louvre. It's near the Seine, not a lot of foot traffic. So they go up the mechanical elevator in a kind of bucket, like a cherry picker. They get to this balcony onto the second floor of the Louvre, and they use what are known as angle grinders.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Which is what exactly?

[Catherine Porter]

Kind of like electric hand saw.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Okay.

[Catherine Porter]

To saw through the window that leads into what's known as the Apollo Gallery. It's this golden, long, beautiful wing of the Louvre that literally was built by Louis XIV as a model for his hall of Mirrors, and it houses the royal jewels of France.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Is this like a very popular part of the Louvre? It certainly sounds as Though it's iconic, super iconic.

[Catherine Porter]

It's not as popular, obviously, as the Mona Lisa, but it's pretty close. You know, when you go in there, it's often quite crowded. It's really opulent. There's paintings on the ceilings, on the walls by famous people like Delacroix. There are hanging tapestries. There are sculptures and these cases down the middle that hold the crown jewels. The thieves break in using the saw. We hear from people who work in the Louvre that there was an explosion of glass and there were a number of security guards inside who really quickly evacuated the room.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

So they didn't approach the thieves?

[Catherine Porter]

No. The protocol in the Louvre in most museums is if you are confronted with an intruder that has things that seem like they could be weapons, your priority is protect people. So they did what they were instructed to do, what they've been trained to do. They got people out and very, very quickly.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

And how many people were there at the time? I mean, 9:30am on a Sunday does not seem like the ideal time to rob the most famous museum in the world. Was it crowded?

[Catherine Porter]

Well, we don't know how many people were in that room. That's like one of the details that has not surfaced yet or been disclosed by investigators. We do know that the Louvre is, like, the most visited museum in the world. Up to 30,000 people visit every day. We've seen videos and spoken to people who were quite frantic, not knowing why they were being evacuated. Many were running to get out. I mean, there was huge fear at first that either there was a fire or this was a terrorist attack.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

So the thieves are inside. What happens next?

[Catherine Porter]

What we know is that they go, like, directly to two cases that are in the middle of the line of cases, and they use their power saws to cut into them and break them open.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

I had heard there was some video footage taken of the thieves stealing the pieces. Do we know anything about how they were acting, what they were doing, their general demeanor at the time?

[Catherine Porter]

Yeah, we've seen those videos. They were given, I guess, to a local French TV station. They're quite blunt. But you see clearly one of the two men wearing something over his head, like a black covering on his head. He's got his yellow vest on, and he's just. He looks incredibly calm, like there's no franticness. He's just sawing away. You know, what we have been told by the chief Paris prosecutor who is in charge of leading the investigation into this is that these are seasoned. They think that they're part of a gang they clearly knew what they were coming for. They were pretty precise and fast, and they. They didn't seem panicked at all. But all this was fairly quick. Our timeline shows that they arrived outside the building at 9:30. They got up to that window on the top of the mechanical ladder. Four minutes later, they broke in and they were out within four minutes and down and gone.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Amazing.

[Catherine Porter]

That's pretty fast. I mean, I know in terms of heists, it's not the fastest. There have many faster. People who study this stuff say it's not crazy fast, but it was fast enough that they escaped and they have not been found.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

So. Okay, let's talk about that escape. I'm trying to imagine it. What does it actually look like?

[Catherine Porter]

You know, they jump out the window that they came in, they go down the same bucket ladder to the bottom. We understand also that they at this point attempt to set fire to the truck, to the bucket itself. We don't. There's been lots of speculation they were trying to remove any kind of DNA or fingerprints, basically. And at this point, what we know is that some security guard or guards come chasing towards them on the ground. They drop a couple things, including one of their security vests and the bottle that they were using to spray gas onto this cherry bin to light it on fire, and they jump on the back of two waiting motorcycles and speed away. One, you know, very juicy detail is that they dropped one of the nine things they originally grabbed.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Right. I read that.

[Catherine Porter]

And it was this incredibly precious crown, an imperial crown that was made for the last empress of France, who was married to Napoleon iii. I can tell you a little bit about it. I have been learning a ton about these type of things.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

You're like the world's expert in crown jewels now.

[Catherine Porter]

Well, not before this, but I have become one. Hold on. So this crown had eight golden eagles on it, 1,354 regular diamonds, and then 1,136 rose cut diamonds, as well as 56 pretty sizable emeralds.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Okay, so they dropped this crown, but they did manage to get eight items. Take me through what those were. What were some of the biggest gets.

[Catherine Porter]

So, you know, again, my crash course and learning about royal jewelry. A lot of these items stem from either Napoleon III or Napoleon himself. So I'll take you through a couple. There was this incredible emerald necklace and earring set that Napoleon gave to his second wife for their wedding in 1810.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Wow.

[Catherine Porter]

So that's just one. Then there's this decorative bow that was worn by Empress Eugenie that has more than 2,000 diamonds.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Oh, my God. I saw a picture of that one. It was, like, hard to look at. It was so shiny even just in.

[Catherine Porter]

The pictures, you know, and there's, like, a pearl kind of tiara that's also incredibly jaw dropping. But, Natalie, one thing that points to that these thieves knew what they were doing is they didn't go for what was really the most expensive item in those cases. They went for these items. And there's lots of discussion about, you know, maybe they thought these ones would be easier to break down and easier to smell and break apart and sell in small pieces. But, you know, among those cases is this incredible diamond that's known as the Regent that was bought by the Duke of Orleans in, like, the early 1700s and was on the centerpiece of Louis XV's crown and then later was on Napoleon's sword on Louis XVI's crown. And it's, like, the size of plum.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Wow.

[Catherine Porter]

But lots of jewelry experts say it would be just far too easy to identify and really hard to pawn off. So we have a sense that this is more of a commodity grab than an attempt to get beautiful heritage pieces for some kind of kooky specialist collector who wants to hold things alone in a vault. And so if you're going for commodities, you're looking for things that can be quickly disassembled and sold in small pieces.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Right. These are thieves. The idea is who are looking to sell these things and make money, not, you know, mount them in their homes. I can imagine it's a lot easier, right, to sell a single diamond than a distinctive necklace, for example.

[Advertisement/Promo Voice]

Right.

[Catherine Porter]

Well, you can't sell that distinctive necklace because it's already been traced. You know, like Interpol has put it on its list. You would get caught very, very quickly. But the idea of what experts are telling us is that you would break it down into small pieces, maybe carve some of the larger stones into smaller stones so they're less identifiable. You know, one expert says you string them into a different kind of necklace and sell it and pawn it off. But certainly, if you try and auction anything off, people will be on the alert looking for these things.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Can I ask, you know, everybody's been talking about these crown jewels as priceless, but obviously there is a price that you can attach to these things. Right. Do we know what was the worth of the things they stole?

[Catherine Porter]

Yeah, we just found out. Up until now, there's been lots of speculation about how much they might have escaped with, but the head of the investigation just went on public radio, literally minutes ago and said that the estimation they have is they're worth 88 million euros.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Whoa.

[Catherine Porter]

Which is a ton. But she also said this interesting thing. She said, look, you know, if you were to break them apart and melt them down, they'd be worth a lot less. In some ways, almost beseeching to the thieves, like, please don't do this. You know, you're not going to make as much money as how we read it in the office.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

For what purpose do you think, out of a desire to keep these precious items intact?

[Catherine Porter]

Yeah, I mean, even if they're worth 88 million euros, I think to the country of France and the history of the country, they're worth a ton more. Historically, symbolically, culturally, these things are priceless. And so I think in some ways a lot of people have been talking about, you know, how much they'd be worth, but really the loss is more emotional, the country, than I think it is financial.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

We'll be right back.

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[Natalie Kitroeff]

So I want to ask just about the reaction to some of this. If the assumption is that these thieves are gonna break these things down, maybe melt down the gold, sell it for parts, make as much money as possible. How are French people responding to that possibility? It is the history of this country that could be disappeared.

[Catherine Porter]

I think the predominant reaction has been shock, and not that at the idea of these things being melted down per se, but just at the whole what happen on Sunday morning. The fact that these people could that easily get into the Louvre has caused, you know, a lot of different kinds of emotional reactions. There's been anger, people are stunned, some people are quite emotional about it. The country's justice minister, he said that this is certain sign of a failure. We have failed. It has been politicized. There's been people, particularly on the right wing of the spectrum, blaming the government for not putting enough money into security. There's been questions about what is the security of the Louvre. And there's just been sort of people bemoaning the fact that this could happen in the center of the city, in the most famous, most visited, most coveted, most protected museum in France and likely the world.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Right. The reaction that you're describing sounds like it's one of a sense of self questioning that's happening because of just how highly trafficked this area was. How could this possibly occur?

[Catherine Porter]

Right, yeah, there's that sense and also just the sense of tragedy. This country watched the Notre Dame almost burned down and people lying the banks of the Seine with tears in their eyes, you know, many of them kneeling, watching it. I think French people living here, they are very critical culturally. They're people who like to strike, they like to complain. They're pretty critical, but they love their history. If you go into a French bookstore, like one out of every four books is a history book. People know their history, they visit the museums. This is like a very important cultural place in French people's hearts. And I think people are appalled, shocked, and really grieving to a degree. The thing that's really interesting is that, you know, France doesn't actually have a huge amount of royal jewels like this because of the revolution.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Explain that.

[Catherine Porter]

So, you know, the revolution which ended in the beheading of the king and queen. At the time, at that time the Louvre was sacked, a lot of things were stolen, including some of the jewels. But then, you know, France has a really ambivalent relationship with its royal history. It's a very proud republic. And during one of those republics, they decided that they were going to take what was left of the royal jewels and auction them off. And that's what they did in the late 1800s. They auctioned off tons of these jewels and incredibly, the lion's share of Them were bought by an American who was a founder of Tiffany's.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Oh, wow.

[Catherine Porter]

So, you know, the Louvre has been spending decades now trying to get them back.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Hmm. In reading about this story, I learned that this is one of several thefts from French museums this year. Can you tell me about some of those other episodes? Like, what is going on?

[Catherine Porter]

Yeah, even this week there was a small museum that was burgled twice in a row and we were looking at like, should we do a story on this? So it was funny that when this happened, I was like, oh, my God. But yeah, last month someone went into the Natural History Museum, which is only a couple subway stops away from the Louvre, and using kind of similar tools, cut into some cases and took out a bunch of molten raw gold and made off with them. In the same month, last month, a museum down in Limoges, southwest of Paris, thieves broke into a museum and stole some ancient China. In November of last year, thieves using bats went in during the day, also to a quite famous museum not far away from where I'm sitting. So, you know, there's definitely a streak of these right now in France.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Is there an understanding that these robberies are connected in any way? I mean, I'm just wondering. It does feel like it's out of another era that you have this string of museum robberies, you know, and I'm wondering if the thieves either are in any way working together, even loosely, or are targeting the museums for similar reasons.

[Catherine Porter]

There's no indication that people are working together. Yes. This seems very old fashioned, except for in one way, this happened in broad daylight, you know, when people were in the museum.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Right.

[Catherine Porter]

And that's pretty new. There's a modern art museum here that was famously burgled in the middle of the night. And a man made off with five very famous tableaux. And he did it in a classic way. Like when you're thinking about the movie in your head, which here is known as Lupin, it's a very famous series. If you haven't seen it, definitely watch it.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

I've seen it. Yeah. I feel like I'm watching it in real life right now.

[Catherine Porter]

But, you know, like, it's secret and often that's at night or in some way that people don't see it happening. This is like, very brazen in that we do know that, you know, there's CCTV cameras all around the Louvre. There were people there. Even so it's a little bit different. And the lead investigator is talking about this being, like, incredibly organized. She doesn't think there was just four people. She thinks that there's many more involved in this. So we don't know anything about these four guys who broke into the Louvre though. So, you know, it's hard to say what kind of connections, but clearly they're either copycatting or there's some ring that's sponsoring them. Those are questions that, you know, we hope to be able to answer in the weeks to come.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

What are the next steps in the investigation? Like what are the investigators telling you about the manhunt for these guys, about their investigative strategies? Do we know how they're going about trying to catch them?

[Catherine Porter]

No. What we do know is that there were 60 police investigators on the case. Now we know it's up to 100. We know that they've been using DNA methods, fingerprinting, they've been using surveillance cameras. We know that the truck was left behind.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Yeah, they didn't manage to burn it.

[Catherine Porter]

They didn't manage to burn it. We know that they had just recently basically stolen it. And so investigators are speaking to the person they stole it from. But that's the gist of what we've been told by investigators. They are being incredibly tight lipped about it at this point. I think they will speak more once and if they find them. But there's a real feeling that there's a race against time to try and before these precious jewels are broken apart and secreted away.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

My final question for you, Catherine, is do you think it's possible, and it sounds like it might be, that these thieves actually pulled this off like that they could get away with it?

[Catherine Porter]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's possible that we will never see those jewels again, But I think France has a pretty good record of capturing some of these people. In fact, the person who is said to have broken into the Natural History Museum was just charged today. She was captured in Barcelona. I think given the amount of cameras and evidence that the cops have, that they will be able to trace who these men were. If someone tries to sell, you know, that beautiful diamond bow that we were talking about earlier, then no doubt they'll get caught and it will be returned. And that is the best case scenario. But if they take each of those thousand plus diamonds off and make something entirely different out of it, maybe a tiara, I don't know, an anklet, a bracelet for a very rich person, then who would notice? At first you would need to be an expert to be able to trace those diamonds to that bow. So it seems much less likely in this case that these beautiful pieces of French heritage will make their way back.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

Catherine, thanks so much.

[Catherine Porter]

You're welcome, Natalie. It was such a pleasure to be talking to you.

[Natalie Kitroeff]

We'll be right back.

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[Natalie Kitroeff]

Here's what else you need to know today. We are one week into President Trump's historic peace plan in the Middle east and things are going, frankly, better than I expected that they were. On Tuesday, Vice President J.D. vance traveled to Israel as the U.S. seeks to shore up the fragile ceasefire deal in Gaza, which has come under strain with repeated flare ups of violence in recent days. Vance didn't give a deadline for Hamas to disarm, a key part of that truce agreement, and he also didn't specify how officials would make sure the group agrees to do so. We've got a lot of work left to do. This is going to take a very, very long time. The vice president did express optimism that the deal would hold, but said the process of securing long term peace would take time. And a White House official said on Tuesday that Trump had no plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the immediate future. A pivot after Trump had suggested last week that he would meet with the Russian leader suddenly soon to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, Trump said he wanted to avoid a, quote, wasted meeting with Putin. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said that after Trump had a call with Putin last week, the Russian leader had committed to sitting down with him. Today's episode was produced by Shannon Lynn and and Caitlin o'. Keefe. It was edited by Brendan Klinkenberg. Fact Checked by Susan Lee. Contains music by Dan Powell, Pat McCusker and Marion Lozano and was engineered by Chris Wood. That's it for the Daily I'm Natalie Kitroweth. See you tomorrow.

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We all have moments when we could have done better. Like cutting your own hair. Yikes. Or forgetting sunscreen so now you look like a tomato. Ouch. Coulda done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it. Learn [e-mail].