Authorities in France are still searching for the robbers who broke into the Louvre in Paris over the weekend and stole priceless jewels.
Coincidentally, a group of about three-dozen travelers from Maine were visiting the museum at the time of the heist — and were in the room next door to where it all happened.
The group was traveling with the Brunswick-based Maine State Music Theatre, which leads a trip for patrons and donors to see theater in Europe every year.
Artistic director Curt Dale Clark said the group had just started a private, guided tour of the Louvre on Sunday morning. They were about to enter one of the exhibition rooms when suddenly, staff members began to push them away and they were surrounded by SWAT teams.
"We had a French guide that ducked us around a pillar, got us down a flight of stairs," Clark said. "We actually got in our bus and got out of the building, before they shut the building down. Thank god."
Initially, Clark said he assumed the worst, maybe a terrorist attack.
"As we exited the building and turned left, our five guides, the five people that were our Louvre guides, started pointing, and there was a ladder leaning up against the building," he said "And they're like, 'That's the ladder! That has to be the ladder; that's not supposed to be there.'"
It wasn't long before the group learned what was going on; Clark said. The museum had been robbed in broad daylight. Video from the scene shows an extendable ladder on the back of a moving truck that the robbers used to reach the balcony of the antiques wing, where eight pieces of Napoleonic jewelry were stolen.
The Maine State Music Theatre has been leading these trips for more than two decades. But Clark said after their experience at the Louvre, this year's trip takes the cake.
"We have so many people who come every year; they will never forget this," Clark said. "Like they said, it's like our episode of Ocean's Eleven."
The sequel, Ocean's Twelve, features a heist at a fictional art museum in Rome.
Meantime, Clark said he wishes the group could have seen more of the Louvre before they were whisked away. But at least they walked away with an unforgettable story.
