The iconic Louvre Museum in Paris has once again opened its doors to the public, just days after a bold daylight heist saw thieves make off with an astonishing collection of royal jewelry. This incident has placed significant pressure on French authorities to re-evaluate the security protocols at the world-renowned cultural landmark.
On Sunday, a team of four audacious thieves utilized an electric ladder and heavy-duty power tools to breach the Apollo Gallery. From this hallowed hall, home to France’s crown jewels, they snatched eight priceless pieces of jewelry, valued by French authorities at over $100 million.
The Apollo Gallery itself, located on the second floor and historically housing the nation’s crown jewels, remains cordoned off and inaccessible to visitors.
This high-profile theft has sparked a rigorous examination of French authorities and raised serious questions about the adequacy of security measures at the Louvre, globally recognized as the most visited museum. Laurence des Cars, the museum’s director, who has maintained public silence since the incident, is slated to address a demanding Senate hearing later today.
Over a hundred investigators are tirelessly working to apprehend the culprits. Art crime specialists fear that the stolen jewels might be dismantled, with their precious stones and metals sold separately on the black market, making recovery exceedingly difficult.
“I have every confidence in their ability to find the perpetrators, despite the days that have passed,” stated Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister.
Despite the minister’s optimism, the government’s stance on accountability has been inconsistent. Earlier this week, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin conceded on French radio, “We failed.”
In stark contrast, Culture Minister Rachida Dati has staunchly defended the Louvre’s security measures, asserting that they were not deficient.
“Did the Louvre Museum’s internal security measures work? Yes,” Dati testified before the French Senate on Wednesday. “Did the alarms work? Yes.”
Nevertheless, Dati confirmed that an internal investigation had been launched and that the museum was already implementing upgrades, including new video surveillance cameras and additional security command posts.
The Louvre itself, a former palace transformed into a museum after the French Revolution, is an immense and intricate complex. It showcases more than 30,000 pieces from its vast collection of 500,000 artworks across over 400 exhibition rooms.
“It’s my home,” remarked Carole Chevallier, a 42-year-old artist queuing to enter. She was at the museum to reproduce a piece by 17th-century Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael, adding, “I’ve been coming here for 15 or 20 years, ever since I was an art student.”
Many visitors returning to the museum seemed to take the recent robbery in their stride.
“I know the French see this as a national humiliation,” commented Raquel Morales, 29, from Marbella, Spain. “But it’s just one of those things that can happen; you can’t always control it.”
Yet, others were aghast that vital pieces of France’s heritage could disappear so swiftly, in less than ten minutes, and voiced their disappointment that the Apollo Gallery remained off-limits.
“I would have liked to see it,” shared Karine Pivetta, 38, visiting from southern France. “These are the jewels of our history, of France’s history.”
Her son, Lucas, was more preoccupied with seeing the Mona Lisa. However, Emilie Sarran, 39, who accompanied them, expressed her shock at the audacious theft. “It’s surprising that in a huge museum like the Louvre, something like this could happen,” she stated.
Director Laurence des Cars, appointed in 2021 as the museum’s first woman president-director by President Emmanuel Macron, has yet to make a public statement regarding the incident. The robbery, however, has reignited serious concerns about insufficient surveillance, the reliability of alarm systems, and the integrity of the glass display cases which were breached with power tools.
France’s national auditing body, the Cour des Comptes, had already begun compiling a report on the Louvre’s security long before the heist. A confidential draft of this report, obtained by The New York Times, revealed critical deficiencies, including inadequate video surveillance and significant cuts and delays in security funding over recent years.
Furthermore, the draft report indicates that security spending in 2024 was considerably lower than two decades prior.
Pierre Moscovici, head of the Cour des Comptes, announced that the full report would be publicly released in the coming weeks. He noted, however, that it “does not reveal anything that is unknown to the administration,” suggesting that French authorities were, in fact, aware of existing security vulnerabilities before the robbery occurred.
With an annual operating budget of approximately $300 million, one-third of which is state-funded, the Louvre welcomed nearly nine million visitors last year, cementing its status as a global attraction.
Beyond its appeal as a tourist destination, the museum serves as a powerful emblem of France’s cultural influence and a key soft-power tool for the French state. Now, the government faces criticism after such a revered institution became the target of an audacious crime.
“I am not underestimating what our fellow citizens must have felt,” Maud Bregeon, France’s government spokeswoman, told reporters after a cabinet meeting. She urged calm, stating, “Let’s keep our cool, let the investigation run its course, and then we can all draw our own conclusions.”