A German lift, Napolean's lost bling, and the fake 'detective': How Louvre heist became a quintessential French affair

In another century, the French might have written angry pamphlets about Prussian efficiency. In this one, they double-tapped the meme. The lift became a stand-in for everything absurd about the story — the perfect metaphor for modern Europe, where a piece of machinery shows more initiative than the Ministry of Culture.