In October 2025, thieves carried out a stunning robbery at the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris, stealing jewelery valued at more than €88 million.
A month later, a video clip, supposedly produced by the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU), began circulating on the Internet. It was claimed that the missing jewelry was discovered in the home of Ukrainian billionaire and former aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, a person recently implicated in a corruption scandal in Kiev.
But the video is fake. An investigation by DW Verify reveals that the video is full of technical and factual errors.
to be sure“Jewelry stolen from the Louvre was found with a Ukrainian billionaire… The latest raid by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has revealed Maria Luisa’s missing jewels from the Louvre among the belongings of Ukrainian billionaire Timur Mendich, who is considered a close collaborator of Volodymyr Zelensky,” an X user posted.
The video spread widely on social media in several languages: English (2.4 million views), French (2.4 million views), and German (1.6 million views). It also spread to Russian networks.
DW checks: forged. When DW contacted NABU, its spokesperson responded within minutes: “The video is fake and is the product of pro-Kremlin propaganda or someone seeking to spread disinformation.”
The first clue that the video is fake is the audio. Although the narration sounds like American English, its pacing is artificial. It highlights the incorrect pronunciation of words such as “Louvre”, “euros” and the name “Volodimir”.
The DW team analyzed the sound using an analysis tool from the Fraunhofer Institute, which revealed that the probability that the sound was in on 71.3 percent generated by artificial intelligence.
This is not a Louvre pendant
DW’s verification team compared the necklace shown in the video with a verified photo of Empress Marie-Louise’s emerald necklace, which was taken at the Louvre in January 2020.
The most obvious discrepancy is the large gold clasp seen on the necklace in the video, where there is none in the original.
Also, the quantity and size of the stones do not match. The original necklace contains 12 small round emeralds, five octagonal emeralds, five square emeralds, and ten drop-shaped pendants. On the other hand, the image of the gem shown in the video contains about 17 round stones and nine pendants with more rounded shapes.
The number of diamond petals around small round emeralds also varies. The original has five petals around each emerald, while the fake has four.
Signs of AI manipulation
Some parts of the necklace also appear blurred and blended, indicating that the image may have been created or modified using artificial intelligence.
Although the free detection tools were inconclusive, another image from the same video was classified as AI-generated with 99 percent certainty.
The viral video is fake. The Louvre jewelry is still missing, and NABU has confirmed that it has no connection to the alleged Ukrainian billionaire.
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