The Natural History Museum in Paris was targeted in a break-in by thieves who stole gold samples valued at €600,000 ($710,000), in the latest incident of a troubling series of thefts targeting cultural institutions, according to the museum.

The National Museum of Natural History, located in Paris’s upscale 5th arrondissement, is renowned for its dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animal exhibits, and also houses a geology and minerals gallery.

Reports indicate the break-in occurred on Tuesday morning, with the thieves using a grinder and a welding torch to enter the building on the banks of the Seine, a site popular with both Parisians and tourists.

The museum’s press office told AFP that “the theft targeted samples of local gold from the national collections held by the museum,” adding that “while their value is estimated at around €600,000 based on the raw gold price, they hold priceless heritage value.”

"Cyberattack"

A police source, speaking anonymously to Le Parisien, said that the museum’s alarm and surveillance systems were disabled due to a cyberattack in July, and it appears the thieves were aware of this vulnerability.

The museum confirmed that “this incident comes at a sensitive time for cultural institutions and museums, as many public collections have been targeted in recent months.”

The museum did not provide details on other thefts, but it is known that the Adrien Dubouché National Museum in Limoges, central France, was broken into earlier that same month, where thieves stole two plates and a Chinese porcelain vase classified as national treasures, valued at around €6.5 million.

Last November, four men carrying axes and baseball bats smashed display cases in broad daylight at the Cognac Jay Museum in Paris, stealing 18th-century artworks, while jewelry worth millions of euros was stolen the following day during an armed robbery at a museum in the Saône-et-Loire region of central France.