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Last year, a daring daylight heist at a museum in Paris has led to a significant insurance payout of over £3 million to the Royal Collection Trust after the theft of two royal items that were on loan for an exhibition. The extent of the loss from the break-in at the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris in November has been laid bare in the Royal Collection Trust’s annual financial report. The robbers broke into display cases and made off with items from an exhibition featuring luxurious miniature items from the 18th Century. Among the stolen treasures were two historically significant and intricately decorated snuff boxes borrowed from the Royal Collection in the UK.
Initial media accounts at the time of the robbery suggested losses of around a million euros, but the Royal Collection Trust’s annual report confirmed a hefty insurance receipt of £3,020,000 related to the stolen snuff boxes that were on loan to the Musée Cognacq-Jay. The Royal Collection Trust, a charitable organization responsible for the care of paintings, sculptures, furniture, and jewelry in the Royal Collection, disclosed that this amount would go into a specific fund aimed at enriching the collection’s assets. The two pilfered items from the Royal Collection are believed to be a snuff box featuring a cameo of the Birth of Venus, presumed to have originated in Germany in the 18th Century, and a Fabrique Royale snuff box, crafted in Germany during the same era, and adorned with almost 3,000 diamonds.
The Fabrique Royale box, which had been in the possession of the Russian royal family before being confiscated by Soviet authorities in 1917, was later acquired by Queen Mary in 1932. Reports from the French newspaper Le Monde described how the robbery was executed by four masked individuals arriving on scooters, who then proceeded to smash display cases using an axe in front of startled museum visitors. Apart from the stolen pieces on loan from the Royal Collection, the exhibition also included artifacts from the Louvre museum and the Palace of Versailles in France.
In addition to the unfortunate incident in Paris, the Royal Collection Trust’s annual report highlighted the record number of visitors to Buckingham Palace during its summer opening last year. The Palace welcomed 683,000 visitors, with more parts of the Palace being made accessible to the public for extended periods. Despite the increased access, it was disclosed that the East Wing, with its scenic view of the Mall, underwent renovation and opened its doors to tourists for the first time. Nevertheless, the most popular royal attraction remained Windsor Castle, which drew nearly 1.4 million visitors during the 2024-25 period.Overall, the royal palaces and exhibitions saw a combined total of 2.9 million visitors, with ticket sales generating close to £90 million in revenue, resulting in profits of almost £14 million. As part of efforts to enhance accessibility, initiatives such as offering £1 tickets to individuals on Universal Credit and other benefits were introduced, with approximately 19,500 tickets being sold in four months at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh
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