The Louvre’s Director Laurence des Automobiles appeared earlier than the French Senate yesterday, October 22, addressing questions on Sunday’s brazen jewel heist on the museum as investigators proceed their seek for the culprits.
In a two-hour livestreamed questioning, des Automobiles, who took the helm of the museum in 2021, answered questions concerning the heist posed by the Tradition Committee of the French Senate, admitting that the Louvre campus had inadequate or decrepit safety infrastructure. Maybe most damning was des Automobiles’s admission {that a} perimeter video surveillance digital camera was pointing away from the suspects in the course of the minutes-long theft. She reportedly additionally stated that she supplied to resign from her put up, however her request was denied.
Throughout her testimony, des Automobiles highlighted what she stated have been her earlier makes an attempt to name consideration to insufficient and outdated museum safety, together with a previous testimony earlier than the French Senate in September of 2024 through which she warned of inadequate safety infrastructure. De Automobiles was accompanied by different Louvre leaders, together with Deputy Normal Administrator Francis Steinbock and Safety Chief Dominique Buffin, who’s the primary girl to carry the position and has confronted misogynistic backlash on-line for the reason that heist.
“I’ve constantly drawn the eye of our supervisory authorities, the nationwide illustration, and the media to the state of disrepair and normal obsolescence of the Louvre, its buildings, and its infrastructure,” des Automobiles testified.
Des Automobiles’s look earlier than the committee coincided with the Louvre’s post-heist reopening. A spokesperson for the museum instructed Hyperallergic that timed-entry tickets have been utterly booked by way of the week, as they’d been earlier than the high-profile crime. Macron reportedly ordered the “rushing up” of safety measures on the museum on Wednesday. The Louvre spokesperson declined to reply Hyperallergic‘s query about whether or not further safety measures had been applied earlier than the museum reopened.
Based on des Automobiles’s testimony, the museum was present process gradual safety enhancements. The upgrades befell in phases for varied causes, de Automobiles stated, together with the massive measurement of the Louvre campus and public curiosity in retaining the museum open. A few of the renewal initiatives have been anticipated to start in early 2026.
“It will be inconceivable to shut the Louvre to the general public,” de Automobiles stated. “They essentially happen over a number of years.”
De Automobiles stated that the museum started putting in new perimeter fences in 2022 and has expanded the safety employees by 5.5% since she assumed her put up in 2021. Nonetheless, employees morale seemed to be at a regarding low when workers went on strike in June, citing exhaustion and poor working circumstances associated to mass tourism. The museum closed for the day in consequence.
The robbers entered the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon at 9:30am on Sunday morning, in accordance with des Automobiles’s testimony, triggering alarms. “Getting older” safety cameras, together with one pointing away from the window entry level, didn’t seize footage of the suspects breaking into the museum and stealing the Nineteenth-century crown jewels. 5 minutes later, a museum operations employees member referred to as the police. De Automobiles stated museum employees chased the suspects, which prevented them from incinerating their automobile. 4 people made off with eight crown jewels, together with an emerald set containing gems reportedly originating in Colombia and a tiara set with diamonds and pearls seemingly from the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean. The estimated worth of the stolen gadgets stands at roughly €88 million (~$102 million).
A video that emerged yesterday exhibits no less than two people, one carrying a bright-yellow security vest resembling these worn by building employees, quickly descending the automobile’s basket-lift contraption.
De Automobiles advised short- and long-term safety measures to be applied on the Louvre, together with the opportunity of a police station contained in the museum, restrictions on automobile entry close to the constructing, and enhanced intruder detection know-how.
Specialists worry that the jewels will likely be melted down and offered on the black market, making the prospect of a protected return to the museum unlikely. Although French authorities discovered traces of DNA on gadgets discarded by the robbers, no suspects have been recognized as of publication, and the Worldwide Prison Police Group has issued a worldwide alert for the artifacts.
