Louvre Robbers Escaped With Less Than a Minute to Spare Due to Major Security Fumbles
An investigation ordered by France’s culture ministry highlighted a number of security failures that made October’s brazen heist possible
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The men who stole more than $100 million worth of crown jewels from the Louvre in October snuck off with just 30 seconds to spare, an investigation into the bold daylight heist has found.
The investigation, ordered by France’s culture ministry, revealed that a combination of crucial mistakes, including a delay in security camera footage, gave the robbers at the Paris museum a half-minute advantage to make off with the still-missing jewels.
“For those precious 30 seconds, all it would have taken was a slightly faster alert from the control room agents if they had been able to see the camera sooner, and a longer window break-in resistance time than was observed,” says Noël Corbin, chief of general inspection of cultural affairs, per Reuters’ Louise Rasmussen. “With a margin of just 30 seconds, the Securitas [private security] guards or the police officers in the patrol car could have prevented the thieves’ escape.”
Police have arrested all four suspected robbers, but the hunt for the missing jewels continues.
The findings reveal that only one of two security cameras where the jewels were on display was working. The working camera captured the heist, but it took up to eight minutes for security guards in the museum’s control room to switch to that specific live feed, according to the New York Times’ Ségolène Le Stradic. The control room did not have enough screens to watch all the live cameras simultaneously.
Once the alarm was raised, staff gave officers the name of the long gallery room where the jewels were on display, but they didn’t specify which end to go to. Police initially showed up to the wrong end of the building before realizing their mistake and turning around. They made it to the scene of the crime 30 seconds after the thieves took off.
Quick fact: How did the thieves steal the jewels?
In October, four robbers drove to the museum in a truck with an attached electric ladder, which they used to enter through a second-floor balcony window.
“It highlights an overall failure of the museum, as well as its supervisory authority, to address security issues,” Laurent Lafon, head of the French senate’s culture commission, said at the start of a hearing on December 10, per Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The report also found that two previous audits—one in 2017 and one in 2019—raised serious security concerns at the museum, but that the findings were never shared with Laurence des Cars, who was appointed to direct the museum in 2021.
The 2019 audit, carried out by experts at the jewelry company Van Cleef & Arpels, highlighted that the museum’s riverside balcony was a security threat because it could easily be reached by an extendable ladder, which is how the thieves broke in two months ago.
“The recommendations were not acted on and they would have enabled us to avoid this robbery,” Corbin said at the hearing, according to AFP.
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The latest inquiry has renewed calls for Des Cars to step down, reports the Times. In October, Des Cars told the senate commission that the break-in had not been captured on camera. She made similar comments last month in an interview with the Times’ Catherine Porter and Elaine Sciolino. However, the investigation contradicts that claim.
“Of the two cameras near the scene, only one was operational,” Corbin said at the hearing, per the Times. “But it was sufficient, despite its poor quality, to allow for preparations for the burglary to be seen.”
On December 15, hundreds of Louvre employees went on strike over working conditions. To many employees, the October heist exemplified longstanding concerns about understaffing, report the Associated Press’ Sylvie Corbet and John Leicester.