The Paris Louvre reopens on Wednesday after the daring theft from the most visited museum in the world. Its director Laurence des Cars is facing questions from a parliamentary culture committee scrutinising security failures.
A Paris prosecutor estimates that the crown jewels stolen from the Louvre on Sunday in a dramatic heist were worth 88 million euros, but that the monetary estimate doesn’t include their historical value to France.
“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn 88 million euros if they have the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in an interview with broadcaster RTL on Tuesday.
"We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason."
Beccuau, whose office is leading the inquiry, said about 100 investigators are now involved in the police hunt for the suspects and gems after the audacious theft from the world’s most-visited museum.
The suspects used a small truck equipped with a hydraulic basket to move up the Louvre’s facade, force a window, smash display cases, and flee with priceless Napoleonic jewels on Sunday morning.
Louvre reopens ahead of parliamentary probe
The Louvre is reopening to the public on Wednesday, just hours ahead of its director's scheduled appearance before the French Senate's culture committee.
Laurence des Cars reportedly handed in her resignation immediately after the heist but the offer was rejected by President Emmanuel Macron, according to Le Figaro, as he wants her to remain in the post to steer the "New Renaissance" project to repair the institution's infrastructure.
In a leaked memo to France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati released earlier this year, des Cars described visits to the museum as a "physical ordeal" and also warned that the Louvre's "very poor conditions" were jeopardising the protection of its artworks.
Those findings have now re-emerged along with widespread criticism of the building's security apparatus with many French opposition MPs calling for heads to roll over the affair.
In response, Dati told lawmakers at the National Assembly on Tuesday that “the Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail; that is a fact."
Dati said she launched an administrative inquiry that comes in addition to a police investigation to ensure full transparency into what happened, but did not offer any details about how the thieves managed to carry out their heist, given that the cameras were working.
Eight minutes to steal eight objects
Officials said the robbery lasted eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre. According to the French culture minister, the incident was “a wound for all of us."
“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.” Dati said.
Sunday’s theft focused on the gilded Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Diamonds are displayed. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the snatch was already over.
Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace, and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
Also stolen was an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugénie’s diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
On Monday, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 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 an individual who witnessed the scene, he said on LCI television.
