robbery, will be restored as a symbol of “renaissance”, the museum’s director Laurence des Cars said Friday. Thieves made away with eight objects on display at the Paris museum, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense. They forced their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery with the help of a freight lift, using disc cutters to cut through display cases and steal the jewels. Only Empress Eugénie’s imperial crown, with more than 1,300 diamonds, was recovered on the day of the robbery outside the museum. Des Cars said the crown was likely damaged when it was removed from its display case through a “small cut” made by the disc cutter, rather than when it fell down on the ground. “All of the most important pieces, the diamonds and emeralds, are actually still there,” she said in an interview with the France Info news broadcaster. “A few small pieces of diamonds are missing, but that’s about it,” she said, adding that “one of the eight gold eagles on the crown is missing”.  (Jamaica Gleaner)