Louvre closed for second day as France hunts jewel thieves

PARIS – The Louvre was closed for a second day on Oct 20 as police hunted for thieves who broke into the museum and stole priceless jewels
in a spectacular daylight heist.

Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that an organised crime group was behind the theft on Oct 19 of nine pieces of jewellery, including a crown with more than 1,000 diamonds, which the thieves dropped as they fled.

The thieves arrived between 9.30am and 9.40am (3.30pm and 3.40pm Singapore time) on Oct 19, shortly after the museum opened at 9am, and completed the robbery in just seven minutes, sources and officials said.

They parked a truck with an extendable ladder – like those used by movers – below the museum’s Apollo Gallery, home to an imperial jewel collection.

They then climbed up and used cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.

The world-famous museum, which includes the Mona Lisa among its extensive collections, said it would be closed for a second day on Oct 20.

At the museum, US tourist Jesslyn Ehlers, 38, and her husband were busy rebooking their tickets.

“We’re just kind of disappointed. We’ve been planning this for a very long time,” she said.

Shortly before the announcement, queues of impatient visitors snaked their way across the museum’s pyramid courtyard and under the tall arches of the main entrance gallery.

Ms Carol Fuchs, an elderly tourist from the United States, had been standing in line for more than three-quarters of an hour.

“The audacity, coming through a window,” she told AFP news agency after the disappearance of the jewels.

“Will they ever be found? I doubt it. I think it’s long gone,” she said.

Diamonds, sapphires missing

The masked thieves dropped and damaged the crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they made their escape.

It is covered in 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, according to the museum’s website.

But eight priceless jewellery items remain missing, according to the Culture Ministry.

The list it released included an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise.

Also stolen was a diadem featuring nearly 2,000 diamonds that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It is adorned with eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre’s website.

The loot would be impossible to sell in its current state, said Mr Alexandre Giquello, president of leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, during a meeting with the police on Oct 20, ordered better protection measures around cultural sites, according to his advisers.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin admitted to flaws in securing the Louvre.

“What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels, and give France a terrible image,” he told France Inter radio.

Involvement of foreigners?

After several other thefts from French museums in recent months, Mr Nunez acknowledged on Oct 19 that securing the museums was a “major weak spot”.

The whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly “foreigners”, he said.

The intervention of the museum’s staff forced the thieves to flee, leaving behind some of the equipment used in the raid, said the Culture Ministry in a statement.

It was the first theft at the Louvre since 1998, when a painting by Corot was stolen and never seen again.

The raid on Oct 19 relaunched a debate over what critics say is poor security at the nation’s museums, far less secure than banks and increasingly targeted by thieves.

In September, criminals broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris
, making off with gold samples that were worth US$700,000 (S$907,000).

The same month, thieves stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in the central city of Limoges, with the losses estimated at US$7.6 million.

The heist on Oct 19 sparked angry political reactions.

“How far will the disintegration of the state go?” said far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella on social media, calling the theft “an unbearable humiliation for our country”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that “everything is being done” to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures. AFP