Experts fear the stolen pieces may already have been broken down and the stones recut to conceal where they actually came from.
Two suspects in the jewel heist at the Louvre in Paris have "partially" admitted their participation and are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum, a Paris prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Laure Beccuau told reporters at a news conference that the two face preliminary charges of theft committed by an organised gang and criminal conspiracy and are expected to be held in provisional detention.
She did not give details about their comments.
It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at €88 million on 19 October after they forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.
One suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said.
He was arrested on Saturday night at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in Paris’ northern suburb of Aubervilliers and was known to police mostly for road traffic offences, Beccuau said.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested Saturday night at his home in Aubervilliers.
"There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country," Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.
Prosecutors had faced a late Wednesday deadline to charge the suspects, release them or seek a judge’s extension.
Jewels still missing
The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.
"These jewels are now, of course, unsellable. Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods," she warned. "It's still time to give them back."
Experts fear the stolen pieces may already have been broken down and stones recut to erase their past.
Earlier on Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre's defences, turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.
Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak points in the museum's security systems.
"A technological step has not been taken," he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analogue, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.
A long-promised revamp, a €79 million project requiring roughly 60 kilometres of new cabling “will not be finished before 2029–2030,” he said.
Faure also disclosed that the Louvre's authorisation to operate its security cameras expired in July and wasn't renewed, a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.
The police chief said officers "arrived extremely fast" after the theft but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain, from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.
Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre's alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialled the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.
Museum and culture officials under pressure
Culture Minister Rachida Dati has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging "security gaps did exist."
She has kept details to a minimum, citing ongoing investigations.
The museum was already under strain. In June, it shut in a spontaneous staff strike over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and "untenable" conditions.
Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.
Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse.
But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.