The jewellery stolen from the Louvre in Paris was valued at more than €85 million, a French prosecutor said, as the museum’s director faces security questions from a Senate committee over the brazen heist.
“The Louvre curator estimated the damages to be €88 million,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said yesterday.
The Louvre director, Laurence des Cars, has not made any public statement since thieves made off with royal jewels during a daylight robbery on October 19 that took just seven minutes, according to AFP.
It is expected to re-open today following two days of shut doors for the investigation – to the frustration of thousands of tourists – and its weekly closure yesterday.
The theft reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit in September.
On October 20, The Telegraph reported that the museum’s first female security head, Dominique Buffin, faces calls to quit following “theft of the decade”.
Some critics have said the hiring of Buffin, was part of “a feminisation policy”.
She was accused of being a diversity hire who put France’s national treasures at risk as the blame game over the heist erupted.
Beccuau said yesterday the greater loss was to France’s historical heritage, adding that the thieves would not pocket the full windfall if they had “the very bad idea of melting down these jewels”, Yahoo News reported.
Scores of investigators are looking for the culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group.
A report by France’s Court of Auditors covering 2019 to 2024 pointed to a “persistent” delay in security upgrades at the Louvre. Only a fourth of one wing was covered by video surveillance.
In January, des Cars had warned culture minister Rachida Dati of a “worrying level of obsolescence” at the museum, citing an urgent need for major renovations.
In Louvre heist, thieves parked a lorry with an extendable ladder, like those frequently used by removal firms in Paris, below the museum’s Apollo Gallery shortly after it opened, climbing up and using cutting equipment to get through a window and open display cases to steal the jewellery, according to AFP.
They made off with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
The museum yesterday hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and “represented a considerable improvement in terms of security”.
In September, criminals broke into Paris’ Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than €1.4 million.
French authorities announced yesterday that a 24-year-old Chinese woman was detained in that case after she was arrested in Barcelona while trying to dispose of nearly 1 kilogram of melted gold pieces.
Also in September, thieves stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in the central city of Limoges, estimated at €6.55 million.
“Museums are increasingly targeted for the valuable works they hold,” according to the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Labour unions have complained that security staff positions at the Louvre have been cut, even as attendance at the world-famous museum, whose extensive collections include the Mona Lisa, has soared.
“We cannot do without physical surveillance,” a union official said.
Beccuau confirmed that four people were involved in the robbery and said authorities were analysing fingerprints found at the scene.
Detectives are scouring video camera footage from around the museum as well as of main roads out of Paris for signs of the robbers, who escaped on scooters.
Des Cars, who has run the Louvre since 2021, is set to appear before the Senate’s culture committee at 4:30 pm GMT today.
