France arrests two men, two women over Louvre heist, says prosecutor

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - On October 19, a four-person gang raided the Louvre, the world’s most-visited art museum, in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million (RM421 million) before fleeing on scooters. — Reuters pic

PARIS, Nov 26 — French authorities yesterday arrested four more people in the probe into last month’s spectacular daylight theft of imperial jewels from the Louvre museum, the top Paris prosecutor said.

“They are two men aged 38 and 39, and two women aged 31 and 40, all from the Paris region,” Laure Beccuau said, following earlier charges against four others over the heist.

On October 19, a four-person gang raided the Louvre, the world’s most-visited art museum, in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million (RM421 million) before fleeing on scooters.

The thieves parked a moving truck with a ladder below the museum’s Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels, ascended in a bucket, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display booths containing the treasures.

The four already charged over the theft include three men and a woman.

One of those men, a 37-year-old, was in a couple with the woman and they have children, Beccuau said earlier this month.

The couple were arrested after their DNA was found in the basket lift used during the robbery.

The man’s criminal record contained 11 previous convictions, most of them for theft, she said.

The first two men arrested earlier were also known to the police for having committed thefts. Both lived in the northeastern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.

The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.

But they made off with eight other items of jewellery including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise.

The loot has still not been found.

The audacious heist made headlines worldwide and spotlighted museum security in France, which has seen a series of break-ins at cultural institutions.

Security weaknesses 

France’s highest audit institution earlier in November said in a cutting report that the Louvre had prioritised rendering the museum more attractive, including by acquiring more artworks, at the expense of security.

The museum’s director has pledged more police and security cameras, acknowledging failings that led to the theft in an appearance before lawmakers.

Compounding the problems faced by the Louvre’s management was a report late Tuesday in the newspaper Le Monde which said that a 2018 security evaluation had clearly identified the break-in risk.

The evaluation, carried out by the jewellery company Van Cleef & Arpels, said the balcony used by the thieves was a weak point in security and could be reached by using an extendible ladder—exactly what transpired in last month’s heist.

The museum did not immediately respond to AFP queries about the report by Le Monde. But the newspaper said the Louvre declared it only became aware of the 2018 security evaluation after the heist.

Adding to its current woes, the Louvre last week announced the temporary closure of one of its galleries due to safety concerns over a ceiling.

The incident underlined the dilapidated state of some of the structures, as well as the challenges of welcoming millions of people every year in a historic building that mostly dates back to the Renaissance era. — AFP