The Louvre has reopened — here’s what the investigation has found so far

The Louvre has reopened just three days after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century that stunned the world.

Thieves slipped in and out of the museum in a brazen daylight heist that lasted less than eight minutes on Sunday, stealing eight items from two high-security display cases, the Ministry of Culture confirmed.

The robbery, which took place steps from the Mona Lisa and involved items valued at more than $100 million, has put France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Louvre chief Laurence des Cars under fresh scrutiny. It comes just months after the museum’s workers went on strike, warning of chronic understaffing and under-resourced protections, with too few eyes on too many rooms.

Latest details on the investigation

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said expert analyses are underway and that four people have been identified partaking in the robbery. The prosecutor added that a team of about 100 investigators have been assigned to the crime, and authorities are analyzing fingerprints discovered at thescene.

Detectives are continuing to analyze video camera footage from around the museum as well as main highways in Paris for signs of the robbers, who escaped on motorbikes.

The jewels remain missing and the thieves are still at large after they used a powered, extendable ladder to get into the second-floor Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo’s Gallery) housing the crown jewels, officials said.

The intruders forced open a window, cut panes with a disc cutter and went straight for the glass display cases, officials said.

The heist took place about 30 minutes after the museum opened, with visitors already inside, and unfolded just 250 metres from the famed Mona Lisa.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the crew entered from outside using a cherry picker via the riverfront facade to reach the hall with the 23-item royal collection.

The thieves smashed two display cases with an angle grinder and fled on motorbikes, Nunez said. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the theft was already done.

Beccuau said that the thieves threatened museum guards with the angle grinder they used to break into the jewelry cases before they fled.

Jewels stolen worth more than $100 million

Beccuau valued the haul at about €102 million, a “spectacular” figure that still fails to capture the works’ historical weight.

Thieves stole eight items from two high-security display cases, including pieces that belonged to Empress Marie-Louise, who was the wife of French Emperor Napoleon I, and others that belonged to Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.

She warned the thieves would be unlikely to get anything close to that sum if they pry out stones or melt the metals — a fate curators fear would pulverize centuries of meaning into anonymous gems for the black market.

“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason,” she said.

“It is important to remember that this damage is an economic damage, but it is nothing compared to the historical damage caused by this theft,” Beccuau said in an interview with RTL radio.

Thieves attempted to steal Empress Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, but it was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. It was reportedly recovered broken.

The French government will not be compensated for the stolen art. Those at private museums in Paris are usually covered by private insurance, a government spokesperson said Tuesday, according to the New York Times. But in the case of the Louvre, “that state acts as its own insurer.”

The pieces were not insured, according to France’s culture ministry, which it says is not uncommon “given the cost of taking out insurance” and the fact that “the accident rate is low.”

The Louvre’s management defended the quality of the display cases that housed the stolen jewels.

“The Louvre Museum affirms that the display cases installed in December 2019 represented a considerable step forward in terms of security, given the degree of obsolescence of the old equipment, which would have led, without replacement, to the works being removed from public view,” the management team told AFP.

Questions about Louvre’s security overhaul

The Louvre’s director Laurence des Cars faced questioning by a cultural committee at the French Senate on Wednesday amid questions over the security at the world’s most visited museum.

A few minutes before the hearing, Jacques Grosperrin, vice-president of the Senate’s culture committee, said they would be asking des Cars why she wanted to resign following the aftermath of the heist.

“Why did she want to resign? I understand that she submitted her resignation to the Minister of Culture, who refused it. If she wanted to resign, it was because she felt responsible, guilty, I don’t know, but responsible,” he said, before adding, “I think she should have asked the Minister of Culture for her resignation.”

Des Cars, the first woman to lead the Louvre since May 2021, began her speech by saying that she “wanted to re-establish some truths.”

“I have faced all my responsibilities. I have seen my name thrown to the wolves, I have seen malicious press articles spread and false information flourish,” she said, according to the newspaper Le Parisien.

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She confirmed that she had submitted her resignation to the Minister of Culture, which was declined.

“Last Sunday, after having observed alongside the Minister of Culture and the Minister of the Interior the consequences of the terrible attack we had just suffered, I offered my resignation to the Minister of Culture. She refused,” des Cars revealed.

She went on to say that she wanted to “provide objective and well-founded insights into the safety of the collections house in the Louvre.”

“Despite our efforts, despite our hard work every day, we have been defeated,” she said, adding that since 2021, she has continued to “draw the attention of our national representation and the media to the state of degradation and general obsolescence of the Louvre, its building and its infrastructure.”

She also explained that the museum’s security relies on equipment, “but these resources are not enough without trained teams and well-applied procedures.”

“On this subject, over the past 10 years, the museum has seen a decline in its surveillance and security staff. Under my presidency, these staff numbers have not decreased. Since 2022, they have increased by 5.5 per cent, ” she added.

Des Cars said that during Sunday’s robbery, Louvre agents “were not armed” and that they “followed the security protocol with responsiveness, precision and composure.”

“Thanks to their professionalism, no one was injured. In this nightmare, no human life was affected,” she added.

Minister of Culture Rachida Dati told France’s National Assembly that there had been no failure in the museum’s security arrangements.

“The Louvre Museum is much more than the largest museum in the world. It is the showcase of French culture and our shared heritage,” she said.

“The Louvre’s security measures were not faulty, that’s a fact. The Louvre Museum’s security measures worked,” she said, adding that she launched an administrative investigation “which will provide a fully transparent account of the events that occurred last Sunday.”

Macron urged ministers to ensure security was tightened at the Louvre after the thieves snatched the jewels.

In a cabinet meeting, the president said “security measures were being deployed for the Louvre and requested a speeding up of these measures,” France 24 reports.

All this comes after Macron announced new measures in January for the Louvre — complete with a new command post and expanded camera grid that the culture ministry says is being rolled out.

In June, a staff walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing delayed the opening. Unions argue that mass tourism has resulted in too few eyes on too many rooms and creates pressure points where construction zones, freight access and visitor flows intersect.

On Wednesday, the Louvre’s other star attractions — from the Venus de Milo to the Winged Victory of Samothrace — were open again. But the Apollo Gallery housing the Crown Diamonds stayed sealed, with a folding screen obscuring the doorway at the gallery’s rotunda entrance.

— With files from The Associated Press