Louvre heist breakthrough as police arrest two men over Paris museum r | UK | News

Two men have been arrested following a robbery at the Louvre Museum last Sunday, which saw £76 million worth of items stolen in broad daylight. According to reports in French media, a man was arrested by border police at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport around 10pm while trying to escape to Algeria.

The second man was arrested a short time later in the Paris area. According to French newspaper Le Parisien, the suspects both hail from the northern Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis and are both known to police to have committed burglaries before. Both men were detained in pre-trial custody as part of the investigations and specialist police will be able to question them for up to 96 hours.

“Highly organized criminals” broke into the Louvre in broad daylight just after 9.30am on October 19 and escaped just eight minutes later with items worth €88m (£76m), including some of the French crown jewels.

The four thieves arrived with a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift or a cherry picker to gain access to the Apollo Gallery. Images taken from the scene show the ladder leaning against the first floor window.

Two of the thieves gained entry by cutting through the window with an angle grinder and cutting the glass of two display cases containing priceless jewellery, before threatening the guards.

Among the stolen items was a necklace belonging to Napoleon’s wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie.

French police said the thieves waited outside on scooters to escape at 9.38am local time and had only been inside for four minutes.

France’s justice minister said security protocols had “failed” and left France with a “horrible image”.

On Friday, the Louvre handed over some of its most valuable jewels to the Bank of France after a robbery exposed embarrassing flaws in the museum’s security.