PARIS (AP) — Suspects have been arrested in reference to the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre museum, the Paris prosecutor mentioned on Sunday, every week after the heist that shocked the world.
The prosecutor mentioned that investigators made the arrests on Saturday night, including that one of many males taken into custody was getting ready to depart the nation from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and brought into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau didn’t verify the variety of arrests and didn’t say whether or not any jewels had been recovered.
Thieves took lower than eight minutes final Sunday morning to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) from the world’s most-visited museum. French officers described how the intruders used a basket raise to scale the Louvre’s façade, pressured open a window, smashed show instances and fled. The museum’s director referred to as the incident a “terrible failure.”
Beccuau mentioned investigators from a particular police unit answerable for armed robberies, severe burglaries and artwork thefts made the arrests. In her assertion, she rued the untimely leak of knowledge, saying it might hinder the work of over 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators.” Beccuau mentioned additional particulars will probably be unveiled after the suspects’ custody interval ends.
French Inside Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence.”
The Louvre reopened earlier this week after one of many highest-profile museum thefts of the century shocked the world with its audacity and scale.
The thieves slipped out and in, making off with a few of France’s crown jewels — a cultural wound that some in comparison with the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.
The thieves escaped with a complete of eight objects, together with a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to Nineteenth-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
In addition they took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second spouse, in addition to a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her giant corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of uncommon craftsmanship — have been additionally a part of the loot.
One piece — Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with greater than 1,300 diamonds — was later discovered exterior the museum, broken however repairable.
Information of the arrests was met with reduction by Louvre guests and passersby on Sunday.
“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it does feel a bit late, we wonder how this could even happen — but it was important that the guys were caught,” mentioned Freddy Jacquemet.
“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” added Diana Ramirez. “That’s what really matters.”
Petrequin reported from London.
