The largest museum in world has been robbed blind
On Oct. 19, four thieves illegally entered the Louvre museum in Paris, France and stole 88 million euros, or approximately 102 million in U.S dollars, worth of jewelry. According to the official Interpol website’s page about the robbery, the thieves stole nine items, including two pairs of earrings, three crowns, two brooches and two necklaces. One of the crowns was recovered at the scene after the thieves dropped it as they fled.
The thieves entered the museum at about 9:30 a.m. They were disguised as construction workers and used a stolen Böcker Agilo truck-mounted lift to get up to the second floor, where they entered the Apollo Gallery, where the French crown jewels were held, through a window. They then stole the jewels, including Empress Eugenie’s Diamond Bow Brooch, Diadem of Empress Eugénie, Emerald Earrings and Necklace from Marie-Louise’s Parure, Sapphire Earrings, Necklace and Diadem of Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense and the Reliquary Brooch.
After they had stolen the jewelry, the thieves exited through the same window they entered through and came down using the stolen lift. They fled the scene on high-powered Yamaha TMax scooters and dropped one of the crowns in the rush. They also left the stolen Böcker Agilo truck-mounted lift they had used to reach the second floor. Them leaving the truck behind was a large part of the investigation, as they had left DNA traces on it. Kai Haggmark ‘28 said, “It was pretty funny because it was a very stereotypical heist, almost like a movie.”
This robbery led people to question the reliability of the Louvres security systems. French teacher Olivier Cougard said, “[The] Louvre is an extremely important part of the French culture. I was surprised by the lack of security systems to protect things that are so valuable to the French culture. I just can’t imagine why there was not a better system in place to protect works of art that are completely unique.”
Along with this the president of the Cours des comptes, the Institution of Auditing, Pierre Moscovici said it was a “deafening wake up call” as well as other news outlets like the BBC saying that the museum has been spending on new art exhibits instead of advancing the security. The flaws that were shown because of this robbery are that the windows were able to be easily cut through to enter the gallery and also that the password to get into the surveillance system was “Louvre,” which is literally the name of the museum. It is possible that if these systems had been updated to be more secure that the museum would never have been robbed.
As of now, four people have been arrested and charged for the crimes. They are currently awaiting trial and if found guilty, they will serve up to fifteen years. Even though these people have been arrested for the crime, the eight pieces of jewelry have still not been recovered. One of the thieves had traces of melted gold on their person, which led authorities to believe the thieves had melted the gold to be able to sell it more easily.
