In October 2025, shortly after the theft of exhibits from a major French museum, a photograph of police officers and a stylish man in a hat standing next to him circulated on social networks. It is alleged that this is the person who is investigating what happened. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
The photo shows a group of police officers in uniform. Standing next to them is a young man in a hat, dressed in 1940s fashion. “This is a real police inspector who is investigating the sensational theft of royal jewels from the Louvre,” says the caption to the photo in post user VIRUZ on social network X (135,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). The photo of the alleged police inspector was also discussed on Facebook (1, 2, 3, 4), and in Telegram the publication of the channel “The Goat Screamed” with this photo dialed 155,000 views.
Louvre robbery happened on the morning of October 19. The criminals climbed to the museum window using a car lift, cut the glass and entered the Apollo Gallery, where French royal and imperial jewels are kept. There, robbers opened an armored display case and stole nine jewelry. After that, they got out the same way and disappeared on mopeds, losing the stolen tiara of Empress Eugenie along the way. According to French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, the operation took only 7 minutes. Total value of stolen items is assessed €88 million - however, according to experts, the stolen exhibits are priceless for the national heritage. On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social network X: “We will find these works of art, and the criminals will be brought to justice. We'll do our best wherever they are."
The investigation of the crime is under the leadership of the Paris prosecutor Lor Becco. According to her, about a hundred investigators from the anti-banditry brigade and the central department for combating illicit trafficking in cultural property are involved in the case. Their identities are being withheld for security reasons and the confidentiality of the investigation.
As for the viral photo, it was done Associated Press photographer Thibaut Camus. On the agency’s website, the photo is captioned: “Police block access to the Louvre after a robbery on Sunday, October 19, 2025, in Paris.” Although even with such a signature one might decide that the man in the hat is a policeman, there are more in the selection of photographs one, made by the same Camus from the same point and provided with the same description, but on it, next to law enforcement officers, a woman in a baseball cap and trench coat is depicted, behind whom (as well as behind the young man in the hat) a chain of people is visible. Perhaps these are museum visitors who come out from the area cordoned off after the robbery.
In an interview with a newspaper The New York Times Camus said that the man in the photo was just a random passer-by who attracted his attention with his old-fashioned outfit. “Old-fashioned, like the museum itself,” noted the photographer. According to Camus, he has no idea who this man is: “I don’t know him. I don't know if he's French. Maybe a tourist? Maybe an Englishman?
Thus, according to the photographer who took the photo, the man in the hat is just a passerby. As for the real police inspectors who are investigating the sensational theft, there are about a hundred of them and their identities are not disclosed.
Cover photo: screenshot X
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