Credit, AFP
7 hours ago
The criminals, armed with power tools, entered the most visited museum in the world in broad daylight and stole eight highly valuable jewels, including a diamond and emerald necklace that Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife.
The Louvre announced that it would remain closed this Monday (10/20) while investigations continue.
"It is certain that we failed, as someone managed to park a crane truck in the center of Paris and climb onto it in just a few minutes to take jewels of incalculable value," Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told broadcaster France Inter.
The minister added that he was confident that the police would eventually arrest the criminals.
However, the director of an organization specializing in locating and recovering stolen works of art has warned that if the thieves are not stopped within the next 24 to 48 hours, the stolen jewels will likely "disappear forever".
“There’s a race against time going on right now,” said Chris Marinello, executive director of Art Recovery International.
The crowns and tiaras stolen in the robbery can easily be dismantled and sold in pieces.
Thieves "will not keep them intact, they will break them, melt the valuable metal, cut the precious stones and hide the evidence of the crime", explained Marinello, who states that it would be difficult to sell these jewels in their original state.
The French police "know that if they do not arrest the thieves within the next 24 to 48 hours, it is likely that these pieces will already be gone," he highlighted.
"They may be able to arrest the criminals, but they won't recover the jewelry."
Credit, Jb Reed/Bloomberg via Getty Images
French media reported that a preliminary assessment by the Court of Auditors (to be published in November) revealed that a third of the rooms in the ward where the robbery took place do not have surveillance cameras.
The assault also led authorities in France to reinforce security at the country's cultural institutions, according to advisors to the country's Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez.
The decision was taken this Monday, after a meeting with the police and several ministers, and comes after the Minister of Justice stated that security protocols "failed" to prevent the robbery, which gave the country a "terrible image".
Nuñez said he was aware of the "great vulnerability" of museum security in France.
Credit, Louvre Museum
Credit, Louvre Museum
The robbery occurred on Sunday, between 09:30 and 09:40 local time (04:30 and 04:40 Brasília time), shortly after the museum opened to visitors.
Four thieves used a vehicle-mounted mechanical elevator to access the Galerie d'Apollon (Apollo Gallery) through a balcony near the River Seine.
Images from the scene showed a ladder mounted on a vehicle leading to a first-floor window.
Two of the thieves cut the windows with a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum.
They then threatened the guards — who evacuated the building. The criminals broke the windows and stole the jewelry, which together contained thousands of diamonds and precious stones.
The crime lasted just seven minutes.
Credit, Louvre Museum
When the museum's alarms began to ring, museum staff followed the expected protocol, contacting security forces and protecting visitors, as reported by the Ministry of Culture in a statement.
The criminals also tried to set fire to the vehicle outside, but were stopped by a museum employee.
In total, eight pieces of jewelry were stolen, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napeleão gave to his wife, Empress Maria Luisa.
A tiara that belonged to Empress Eugenia, wife of Napoleon III, which contained almost 2000 diamonds, was also taken.
And a necklace that belonged to Maria Amelia, the last queen of France, containing eight sapphires and 631 diamonds.
Credit, Louvre Museum
French President Emmanuel Macron described the theft as an "attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history."
Nathalie Goulet, member of the French Senate's Finance committee, said this is a "very painful" episode for France.
"We are all disappointed and angry," he told the BBC, adding that it was "difficult to understand how this could happen so easily."
Goulet stated that the gallery's alarm had recently failed:
"We have to wait for the investigation to find out whether the alarm was deactivated," he said.
He considered that if the jewels were fragmentary, they would be "used in a money laundering scheme".
"I can't believe we are dealing with amateurs. This is an organized gang and they have no morals. They don't appreciate jewelry as historical pieces, just as a way to launder their dirty money."
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