Louvre failed to spot jewel thieves early enough, museum boss says

The Louvre failed to spot a gang of thieves early enough to prevent the theft of French crown jewels worth €88 million (£76 million), the museum’s director has revealed.

Laurence des Cars, speaking publicly for the first time since Sunday’s heist, told French senators that video surveillance around the Louvre perimeter was weak and “aging.”

The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointed at the first-floor balcony that led to the Apollo Gallery housing the jewels, she said.

“We let these gems fall,” she said, adding that no one was protected from “brutal criminals – not even the Louvre.”

Ministers gave press conferences and interviews and denied security lapses, but des Cars brushed it off and admitted the Louvre had been “defeated”.

His words provided extraordinary insight into the difficulty of securing the world’s most visited museum and the true state of its security.

The CCTV system outside the Louvre was “very unsatisfactory”, she said, and inside some areas were simply too old to accommodate modern technology.

Despite the museum’s huge visitor volume – 8.7 million last year alone – investment in security has been slow and she highlighted the budgetary challenges major institutions face.

Des Cars, who became director of the Louvre in 2021, said she wanted to double the number of video surveillance cameras.

She said she was warned about the “obsolete” nature of the equipment at the Louvre when she accepted the job, unlike the modern equipment at the Musée d’Orsay, where she had previously worked.

Some of the senators she met at Wednesday’s hearing expressed disbelief over the Louvre’s security, wondering why there was only one camera – on the exterior wall facing the river – and why it was facing the wrong direction.

This single failure meant that the truck carrying the band and their mechanical ladder, used to reach the first floor of the gallery, was not spotted at all upon its arrival at the foot of the Apollo gallery.

“There is a weakness at the Louvre and I fully admit it,” des Cars told senators.

She praised security officers who she said acted quickly to evacuate the building as soon as they became aware of an intrusion, but conceded: “We did not spot the arrival of the thieves early enough…the weakness of our protective perimeter is known.”

The museum reopened its doors on Wednesday, although the gallery remained closed.

The Louvre is home to priceless works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The hunt is still on for the group of four people who, in less than 10 minutes last Sunday morning, broke into one of the most famous museums in the world. They left with eight precious jewels, including a diamond and emerald necklace that Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife.

While fleeing, they dropped a 19th-century diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugenie. Although it was recovered, the wreath was damaged and Laurence des Cars told senators that it had probably been crushed when the thieves snatched it from its display case.

“Early assessments suggest that a delicate restoration is possible,” des Cars said.

Some of the museum’s problems she raised at the hearing included reductions in surveillance and security staff over the past decade and a dilapidated infrastructure that couldn’t handle the latest generation of video equipment.

The director hopes that work to improve security will begin in early 2026.

However, this is expected to prove difficult given the aging infrastructure of what was once a royal palace.

Des Cars said she submitted her resignation to the Culture Ministry after the robbery, but was refused. She told senators she had been raising concerns about the state of the Louvre for some time.

She became animated, even indignant, as she defended herself against media allegations that she prioritized her own comfort before protecting the Louvre and its historic collections.

“I am hurt as president and director that the warnings that I was giving, as a whistleblower, in a sense, came to fruition last Sunday.

“We experienced a terrible failure at the Louvre. I took responsibility for it,” she said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told French radio Europe1 on Wednesday that he was “completely sure” the thieves would be arrested.

Prosecutors said their theory is that the thieves were under the orders of a criminal organization.