Louvre Heist Perpetrators Had Just Seconds to Spare

Thieves who slipped crown jewels out of the Louvre in October appear to have been truly racing against the clock, according to a French investigation that paints a picture of cascading security failures at the world's most-visited museum. A report ordered by the culture ministry and presented to the Senate's culture commission Wednesday found that the intruders escaped with roughly $100 million in jewels just half a minute before police and guards reached the spot, reports the Guardian.

"Give or take 30 seconds, the Securitas [private security] guards or the police officers in a car could have prevented the thieves from escaping," said chief investigator Noël Corbin. Investigators said the heist's success hinged less on criminal genius than on preventable weaknesses. Only one of two surveillance cameras overlooking the break-in site was working, and security staff in the control room didn't have enough screens to properly monitor live feeds. When an alarm finally sounded on the morning of Oct. 19, officers were initially directed to the wrong location.

The report also faults the Louvre for not acting on years of warnings. A 2019 audit by high-end jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels flagged a riverside balcony as a serious vulnerability that could be reached with an extendable ladder—the exact entry route used in the Apollo Gallery raid. The report noted surveillance cameras didn't cover the balcony's entirety and included a diagram that specified the exact window that was most vulnerable. Artnet reports current Louvre director Laurence des Cars, appointed in 2021, had not been given a copy of that audit, whose existence has some wondering about the possibility of an "insider leak."

"The recommendations were not acted on and they would have enabled us to avoid this robbery," Corbin told senators, citing poor coordination between the museum's successive leaders. The AP reports des Cars will be questioned by lawmakers next week. The four suspected perpetrators have been arrested, but the jewels remain missing.