PARIS, Oct 20 (Reuters) – France ordered a safety assessment on the Louvre and checks at different cultural websites on Monday whereas a hunt was underway for thieves who lifted priceless crown jewels in an audacious daylight heist on the world’s hottest museum.
In what some politicians branded a nationwide humiliation, 4 folks broke into the Louvre on Sunday utilizing a crane to smash an upstairs window. They took objects from a gallery for royal jewelry earlier than escaping on motorbikes.
Some media dubbed it the “heist of the century”.
Crowds gathered outdoors the still-closed museum on Monday, some snapping the now notorious window.
“I’m passing by here just to immortalize this little moment, which is not very glorious for France,” mentioned Victor Sauvageot.
The break-in raised awkward questions on safety on the Louvre, which had 8.7 million guests in 2024 and is residence to artworks such because the Mona Lisa.
“What is certain is that we failed,” Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin acknowledged to France Inter radio.
“Someone was capable of putting a crane truck in the open in the streets of Paris, to have people walk up for a couple of minutes and take priceless jewels and give France a deplorable image.”
The Tradition and Inside Ministers agreed in an emergency assembly to research what went flawed and to strengthen safety measures the place needed at cultural establishments throughout the nation.
DIMITAR DILKOFF by way of Getty Photos
“For too long we have looked into the security of visitors but not the security of art works,” Tradition Minister Rachida Dati advised M6TV, including that she hoped to place in place shortcuts to public procurement guidelines to hurry up safety enhancements in museums.
The theft took between six and 7 minutes and was carried out by individuals who had been unarmed however who threatened guards with angle grinders, a prosecutor mentioned.
The probe has been entrusted to a specialist police unit that has a excessive success price in cracking high-profile robberies.
“I would like to understand for myself how it was done,” mentioned one other customer to the positioning, 56-year-old Daniela Fernandes da Costa, from Brazil.
Darmanin vowed the robbers can be caught however that didn’t quell dismay, particularly at a time of political disaster.
“The Louvre is a global symbol of our culture. This robbery … is an unbearable humiliation for our country,” mentioned Jordan Bardella, chief of the far-right Nationwide Rally social gathering. “How far will the disintegration of the state go?”
Francois-Xavier Bellamy, of the conservative Republicans social gathering, referred to as it “a symptom of a country that cannot protect its heritage”.
The eight gadgets of stolen jewelry included a tiara and earring from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, of the early nineteenth century. The crown of Empress Eugenie was discovered outdoors the museum, apparently dropped through the getaway.
Maryanne Day, a U.S. customer, was shocked, saying: “It feels like a museum like this would have the security that would stop something like that”.
Christopher Marinello, founding father of Artwork Restoration Worldwide, an organisation specialising within the restoration of stolen artwork, mentioned most museums complained they didn’t have sufficient funding for safety.
“The Louvre is one of the most well funded museums in the world. And if they’re going to be hit, every museum is vulnerable,” he advised Reuters.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Inti Landauro, Lucien Libert, Juliette Jabkhiro, Lauren Bacquie and Vitalii Yalahuzian; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Modifying by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)
