Louvre Heist Sparks Security Scramble Across French Museums

PARIS, October 20 (Reuters) – France ordered a security review Louvre While the capture of thieves who stole priceless royal jewels in a daring robbery at the world’s most popular cultural venues on Monday continued, other cultural venues were also checked. museum.

Four people were killed in what some politicians branded a national humiliation. entered into Louvre He used a crane to break an upstairs window on Sunday. They took items from the crown jewels gallery before fleeing on motorbikes.

Some media outlets called it the “robbery of the century.”

The crowd gathered in front of the venue, which is still closed museum On Monday, some are closing the now infamous window.

“I am passing through here to immortalize this little moment, not so glorious for France,” said Victor Sauvageot.

Break-in raises awkward questions about security LouvreThe museum has 8.7 million visitors in 2024 and hosts works of art such as Mona Lisa.

“What is certain is that we failed,” Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin told France Inter radio.

“Someone managed to leave a crane truck out in the open on the streets of Paris, causing people to walk for a few minutes, pick up priceless jewels and create a deplorable image of France.”

The Ministers of Culture and Internal Affairs agreed to hold an emergency meeting to investigate what went wrong and strengthen security measures where necessary at cultural institutions across the country.

“We have looked at the safety of visitors for a very long time, but we have not taken into account the safety of works of art,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati told M6TV, adding that she hoped to introduce shortcuts to public procurement rules to speed up security improvements. museumS.

The prosecutor said the robbery lasted six to seven minutes and was carried out by men who were unarmed but threatened the guards with a grinder.

The investigation was entrusted to a specialist police unit with a high success rate in solving high-profile robberies.

“I’d like to understand how it’s done myself,” said another visitor to the site, 56-year-old Daniela Fernandes da Costa from Brazil.

Darmanin promised that the robbers would be caught, but this did not alleviate the horror, especially at a time of political crisis.

“ Louvre It is a global symbol of our culture. “This robbery… is an intolerable humiliation for our country,” said Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally Party. “How far will the disintegration of the state go?”

Francois-Xavier Bellamy of the conservative Republican Party called it “a symptom of a country that has failed to preserve its heritage.”

Article eight stolen jewelery It included a tiara and earrings from the early 19th century set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense. Empress Eugenie’s crown was found outside the church. museumApparently he fell during the escape.

Maryanne Day, a US visitor, was shocked and said: “It’s like a museum “We would have the security to stop something like this.”

Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, an organization specializing in the recovery of stolen art, said: museumThey complained that they did not have enough funding for security.

“ Louvre one of the best funded museumin the world. And if they’re going to be shot, every museum vulnerable,” he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Inti Landauro, Lucien Libert, Juliette Jabkhiro, Lauren Bacquie and Vitalii Yalahuzian; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)