All members of Louvre jewellery heist gang now in custody, French police claim
A man arrested by French police earlier this week is thought to be the fourth member of the group that stole France’s crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, a Paris prosecutor said on Friday.
This means all members of the group involved in the robbery are now believed to be in custody.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the arrested 39-year-old man had six previous convictions.
He has now been charged with preliminary charges of robbery by an organized gang; these charges are punishable by 15 years in prison and criminal conspiracy; That sentence could carry up to 10 years in prison if convicted for his suspected role in the Oct. 19 burglary at the world’s most visited museum.
The robbery gang’s loot was worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million); this monetary value did not include their enormous historical value to France.
The prosecutor’s statement did not specify exactly what role the man was thought to have played in the daytime robbery, which was carried out by robbers disguised as workers wearing brightly colored vests, using grinding machines, a freight elevator and tricks.
The robbery is believed to be the work of a four-man team; The two men entered the museum’s Apollo Gallery, where the jewels were on display, and were then taken away on motorcycles by two employees waiting outside.
The cargo could not be saved. It includes the diamond and emerald necklace that Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels attached to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amalie and Hortense, and the pearl and diamond tiara that belonged to Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie.
The robbery drew attention to the security of the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum.
It took less than eight minutes for the thieves to enter and exit the museum, using a freight elevator to reach the building’s window. Footage from museum cameras showed two men entering the ornate Apollo Gallery and using grinders to cut through jewelery displays.
Empress Eugénie’s emerald-studded imperial crown containing more than 1,300 diamonds was later found outside the museum.
