Cameras Did Not Cover Jewel Heist Window, Louvre Boss Reveals

With France still stunned from Sunday’s brazen crown jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, its Director Laurence des Cars said Wednesday that the exterior security cameras do not offer full coverage of the museum’s facade, and the window through which the thieves broke in was not monitored by CCTV.

The world-famous museum reopened its doors to the public on Wednesday morning in Paris after the heist.

Footage shared on social media showed crowds queuing outside the museum’s iconic pyramid-shaped entrance well before 9 a.m., when its website confirmed it was open again.

Police are continuing their hunt for the gang of four who made off with eight treasures valued at over $100 million in a daylight robbery that took just minutes to complete.

The Apollo Room, from where the jewels were snatched, remained closed to visitors as investigators continued their search for clues, and crowds queued to get into the other areas of the world’s most visited museum.

Resignation Refused

Des Cars said Wednesday she had offered her resignation, but Culture Minister Rachida Dati refused to accept it.

The museum director acknowledged a “terrible failure” while appearing before the French senate’s culture committee, saying the theft had exposed “weaknesses” in security.

“Despite our efforts, despite our hard work every day, we were defeated,” she told the committee.

The heist has captured the imagination of people around the world, many of whom have questioned how four hooded assailants were able to drive up to the museum while it was open, smash a second-floor window, and use a cherry-picker to grab their staggering haul, before riding away on motorbikes without getting caught.

“We did not detect the thieves’ arrival early enough,” the museum director said, faulting the fact that there were not enough cameras outside monitoring the perimeter of the Louvre, which is home to around half a million items.

Security Warnings Ignored

Des Cars said she had repeatedly warned that the centuries-old building’s security was in a dire state.

“The warnings I had been sounding came horribly true last Sunday,” she said.

She pledged to establish no-parking perimeters in areas around the Louvre, upgrade the CCTV network, and ask the interior ministry to set up a police station inside the museum.

Des Cars said the museum, housed in the Louvre Palace on the right bank of the Seine and originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II, needed immediate upgrades, including security devices, and said she had asked for police protection to be based there.

But France’s culture minister Rachida Dati, who has come under fire since the robbery, defended the system.

“The Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” she told politicians in the National Assembly.

Dati said an administrative inquiry will run alongside the police investigation to ensure full transparency into what happened.

The heist was “a wound for all of us,” she said. “Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Monday that the museum’s alarm was triggered when the window of the Apollo Gallery was forced.

Police officers arrived on site two or three minutes after they were called by a witness at the scene, he said on LCI television.

The thieves targeted only the Apollo Gallery, where the Crown diamonds are displayed. The alarms brought agents at the Louvre to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the jewels had been snatched in around four minutes, with the entire operation being carried out in under eight minutes.

More Than 2,000 Workers

The Louvre opened in 1793 and is owned by the French government. The famous glass-and-metal pyramid, designed by I. M. Pei, was opened in March 1989 by then-President François Mitterrand.

Since the 1990s, the management and governance of the Louvre have been made more independent, and since 2003, the museum has been required to generate more of its own funds for projects. Every year, the museum now raises as much as it gets from the state—about 122 million euros, or around $142 million.

The government pays for operating costs, including salaries, safety, and maintenance, while the rest—new wings, refurbishments, and acquisitions—is left to the museum to finance, either through ticket sales, private contributions, or other fundraisers. For example, the Louvre has raised millions through allowing its galleries to be used for filming, such as for The Da Vinci Code, made in 2006.

The Louvre employs a staff of more than 2,000 led by Director Jean-Luc Martinez, who reports to the French Ministry of Culture and Communications. Police have not said whether any staff are under suspicion of involvement in the heist, but Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said all lines of inquiry remained open on Monday.

Monetary Value Announced

The thieves targeted only the Apollo Gallery, where the Crown diamonds are displayed. When alarms sounded, this brought agents at the Louvre to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the jewels had been snatched.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that the estimated value of the Napoleonic jewels stolen in the dramatic weekend smash-and-grab robbery is 88 million euros, or more than $102 million.

Beccuau said that the monetary estimate does not include their “priceless” historical value to France.

The prosecutor, whose office is leading the probe into the crime, said about 100 investigators are now involved in the police hunt for the suspects and gems.

“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” she said in an interview with broadcaster RTL.

“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”

Eight objects were stolen, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugenie’s diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.