Porters who operated a lucrative crime ring at Paris’s most prestigious auction house have been jailed for the theft of 275 tons of objects worth millions.

A judge sentenced 30 people to between 18 months and three years in prison. They were members of a traditional 110-strong union known as the cols rouges because of the red collars on their black uniforms.

Their scam was rumbled following an anonymous tipoff, which led to a police operation that recovered thousands of paintings, sculptures and other objects stolen from auctioneers Hôtel Drouot.