Paris Police Acknowledge Major Gaps In Louvre’s Defenses After Jewel Theft

PARIS (AP) — French police acknowledged Wednesday that there were major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses. This month’s dazzling daylight theft It will become a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow fixes were leaving weak seams at the world’s most visited museum.

“No technological breakthroughs have been made,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing low-quality images that are slow to be shared in real time.

He said the long-promised renovation – a $93 million project requiring about 60 kilometers (37 miles) of new cabling – “will not be completed before 2029-2030.”

Faure also revealed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate security cameras quietly expired in July and was not renewed; it was a lack of paperwork that some saw as a symbol of wider neglect after thieves forced open a window leading to the Apollo Gallery, hacked into the safes with power tools and escaped. eight French crown jewels Within minutes while the tourists are inside.

“Officers arrived extremely quickly,” Faure said, but added that the delay occurred earlier in the chain from initial detection to museum security, the emergency line and police command.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with basket lifts.

Two suspects were arrested over the weekend, including one who was stopped at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport while trying to leave France, authorities said. Under France’s rules on organized theft, detention can last up to 96 hours; That limit will expire late Wednesday, when prosecutors must charge suspects, release them or the judge must ask for more time. The Louvre’s eight stolen pieces are valued at approximately $102 million. None have been confirmed rescued.

The theft also exposed an insurance blind spot: Authorities say the jewelry was not privately insured. The French state self-insures its national museums because the premiums for protecting priceless heritage are astronomically high; This means the Louvre will not receive any payment for the loss. The financial blow is as complete as the cultural wound.

Faure backed off on quick fixes. He rejected calls to establish a permanent police station within the palace-museum, warning that it would set an unhelpful precedent and would be of little use against fast, mobile teams. “I am absolutely against it,” he said. “The problem is not to keep watch at the door, but to speed up the alarm chain.”

He called on lawmakers to authorize tools that are currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition), flagging suspicious movements, and tracking scooters or rigs on city cameras in real time.

The October 19 robbery was quick and simple. In the morning hours, thieves reached the jewelry gallery near the streetside windows, cut through the reinforced safes and disappeared within minutes. Former bank robber David Desclos told the AP that the operation was textbook and vulnerabilities were blindingly obvious in gallery layout.

Under pressure, Culture Minister Rachida Dati remained on the defensive; He rejected the resignation of the Louvre director and acknowledged that “security gaps existed”, insisting that the alarms were working. He kept details to a minimum, citing ongoing investigations.

The showdown reaches a museum already under tension. In June, The Louvre closed in a spontaneous staff strike unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions – including security guards. Unions say mass tourism and construction pain points are creating blind spots; This vulnerability was highlighted when the thieves took a basket elevator to the façade overlooking the Seine and reached a hall where the royal jewels were displayed.

Faure said police will now monitor probation deadlines across agencies to prevent a repeat of the July breach. But he stressed that the bigger fix is ​​disruptive and slow: dismantling and rebuilding core systems while the Palace remains open, and updating the law so police can respond to suspicious movements in real time, before a scooter gets lost in Paris traffic and diamonds become history.

Experts fear that the stolen pieces may have already been broken and the stones may be recut to erase their history; This adds urgency to the debate about how France is protecting what the world has come to see.