PARIS (AP) — French police acknowledged main gaps within the Louvre’s defenses on Wednesday — turning this month’s dazzling daylight theft right into a nationwide reckoning over how France protects its treasures.
Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure informed Senate lawmakers that ageing programs and slow-moving fixes left weak seams on the earth’s most-visited museum.
“A technological step has not been taken,” he mentioned, noting elements of the video community are even nonetheless analog, producing lower-quality photos which are sluggish to share in actual time.
An extended-promised revamp — a $93 million undertaking requiring roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) of latest cabling — “will not be finished before 2029–2030,” he mentioned.
Faure additionally disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to function its safety cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as an emblem of broader negligence after thieves pressured a window to the Apollo Gallery, lower into instances with energy instruments and fled with eight items of the French crown jewels inside minutes whereas vacationers had been inside.
“Officers arrived extremely fast,” Faure mentioned, however he added the lag occurred earlier within the chain — from first detection, to museum safety, to the emergency line, to police command.
Faure and his crew mentioned the primary alert to police got here not from the Louvre’s alarms however from a bike owner exterior who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted males with a basket raise.
Suspects’ custody expiring
Officers say two suspects had been arrested over the weekend, together with one stopped at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport as he tried to go away France. Underneath French guidelines for organized theft, custody can run as much as 96 hours; that restrict expires late Wednesday, when prosecutors should cost the suspects, launch them, or search a decide’s extension. The Louvre values the eight stolen items at about $102 million. None has been confirmed recovered.
The theft has additionally uncovered an insurance coverage blind spot: officers say the jewels weren’t privately insured. The French state self-insures its nationwide museums, as a result of premiums for masking priceless heritage are astronomically excessive — that means the Louvre will obtain no payout for the loss. The monetary blow, just like the cultural wound, is complete.
Faure pushed again on fast fixes. He rejected requires a everlasting police submit contained in the palace-museum, warning it might set an unworkable precedent and do little towards quick, cellular crews. “I am firmly opposed,” he mentioned. “The issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert.”
He urged lawmakers to authorize instruments at present off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object monitoring (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious actions and comply with scooters or gear throughout metropolis cameras in actual time.
The Oct. 19 heist was swift and easy. Within the morning rush, thieves reached the jewel gallery close to streetside home windows, lower by way of strengthened instances and vanished in minutes. Former financial institution robber David Desclos informed the AP the operation was textbook and vulnerabilities had been manifestly apparent within the format of the gallery.
Museum and tradition officers underneath strain
Tradition Minister Rachida Dati, underneath strain, has stayed defensive — refusing the Louvre director’s resignation and insisting alarms labored whereas acknowledging “security gaps did exist.” She has stored particulars to a minimal, citing ongoing investigations.
The reckoning lands at a museum already underneath pressure. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous employees strike — together with safety brokers — over unmanageable crowds, power understaffing and “untenable” situations. Unions say mass tourism and development pinch factors create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by thieves who rolled a basket raise to the Seine-facing façade and reached a corridor displaying the crown jewels.
Faure mentioned police will now monitor surveillance-permit deadlines throughout establishments to forestall repeats of the July lapse. However he confused the bigger repair is disruptive and sluggish: ripping out and rebuilding core programs whereas the palace stays open, and updating the regulation so police can act on suspicious motion in actual time — earlier than a scooter disappears into Paris visitors and diamonds into historical past.
Specialists worry the stolen items could already be damaged down and stones recut to erase their previous — a prospect that provides urgency to France’s debate over the way it guards what the world involves see.
