Louvre heist sparks security scramble across French museums

By Juliette Jabkhiro and Lucien Libert

PARIS (Reuters) -France ordered a security review at the Louvre and checks at other cultural sites on Monday while a hunt was underway for thieves who lifted priceless crown jewels in an audacious daylight heist at the world's most popular museum.

In what some politicians branded a national humiliation, four people broke into the Louvre on Sunday using a crane to smash an upstairs window. They took objects from a gallery for royal jewellery before escaping on motorbikes.

Some media dubbed it the "heist of the century".

Crowds gathered outside the still-closed museum on Monday, some snapping the now infamous window.

"I’m passing by here just to immortalize this little moment, which is not very glorious for France,” said Victor Sauvageot.

'DEPLORABLE IMAGE'

The break-in raised awkward questions about security at the Louvre, which had 8.7 million visitors in 2024 and is home to artworks such as the Mona Lisa. 

"What is certain is that we failed," Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin acknowledged to France Inter radio. 

"Someone was capable of putting a crane truck in the open in the streets of Paris, to have people walk up for a couple of minutes and take priceless jewels and give France a deplorable image."

The Culture and Interior Ministers agreed in an emergency meeting to investigate what went wrong and to strengthen security measures where necessary at cultural institutions across the nation.

"For too long we have looked into the security of visitors but not the security of art works," Culture Minister Rachida Dati told M6TV, adding that she was hoping to put in place shortcuts to public procurement rules to speed up security enhancements in museums.

The robbery took between six and seven minutes and was carried out by people who were unarmed but who threatened guards with angle grinders, a prosecutor said.

The probe has been entrusted to a specialist police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies.

"I would like to understand for myself how it was done," said another visitor to the site, 56-year-old Daniela Fernandes da Costa, from Brazil.

DISMAY OVER ROBBERY

Darmanin vowed the robbers would be caught but that did not quell dismay, especially at a time of political crisis.

"The Louvre is a global symbol of our culture. This robbery ... is an unbearable humiliation for our country," said Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally party. "How far will the disintegration of the state go?"

Francois-Xavier Bellamy, of the conservative Republicans party, called it "a symptom of a country that cannot protect its heritage".

The eight items of stolen jewellery included a tiara and earring from the set of Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, of the early 19th century. The crown of Empress Eugenie was found outside the museum, apparently dropped during the getaway. 

Maryanne Day, a U.S. visitor, was shocked, saying: "It feels like a museum like this would have the security that would stop something like that".

Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, an organisation specialising in the recovery of stolen art, said most museums complained they did not have enough funding for security.

"The Louvre is one of the most well funded museums in the world. And if they're going to be hit, every museum is vulnerable," he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Inti Landauro, Lucien Libert, Juliette Jabkhiro, Lauren Bacquie and Vitalii Yalahuzian; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)