1 month ago
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THE audacious heist at the Louvre bears all the hallmarks of being carried out by the notorious Pink Panther gang, a former Flying Squad boss has said.
Priceless gems stolen in the raid are likely to have already been smuggled out of France, according to The Sweeney’s ex-operational chief Barry Phillips.
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The treasure, including thousands of individual diamonds and emeralds, will be broken up and remodelled to be sold on the open market, he added.
French authorities have said foreign criminals could have carried out the seven-minute raid at the world-famous Paris museum on Sunday morning.
Retired detective chief superintendent Mr Phillips said on Monday the military-style precision of the robbery suggests it was carried out by the Pink Panther gang.
The criminal collective of former Yugoslav soldiers are reported to have carried out around 400 high value heists around the globe, including Britain.
Mr Phillips said: “This heist bears all the hallmarks of the Pink Panther gang.
“It fits exactly with their previous track record and methods they use.
“This team of robbers were highly professional.
“They will have a well organised network to slaughter (dispose of) the goods, which no doubt went straight out of the country.
“The jewellery will be broken up and the precious metal melted down.
“They will have people to reshape the diamonds and change their appearance.
“While that would devalue the treasure, it will still be extremely valuable.”
Four masked bandits in hi-vis workmen’s jackets used a flat-bed truck equipped with a mechanical lift to break into the Louvre’s Gallery of Apollo on on Sunday morning.
Two of the gang were lifted up to a first-floor balcony and cut through a first-floor window with disc cutters before threatening guards and smashing their way into two display cases.
They left the lorry and hydraulic lift behind and escaped on scooters, dropping a jewelled crown on the way.
Ex-Sweeny chief Mr Phillips said: “The targeted treasure fits entirely with the kind of jobs the Pink Panther network have pulled off in the past.
“They don’t go for paintings and artefacts because there is a very limited market with such items.
“High value jewellery is much easier to conceal by breaking it up and offers quick rewards from an early disposal.”
The Pink Panther gang got their nickname after hiding a £500,000 diamond stolen during a 2003 raid on Graff jewellers, in London’s Mayfair, in a jar of face cream.
An identical trick was used in the first Pink Panther film, starring David Niven as a gentleman thief and Peter Sellers as bungling Inspector Clouseau.
The gang are reported to have stolen more than £400 million worth of gems from high-end stores in 35 different countries.
In 2018, Scotland Yard issued an appeal to trace Croatian Vinko Osmakcic, a suspected member of the Pink Panther gang, over a £2 million diamond theft at a Chelsea art show the previous year.
Mr Phillips said: “The Pink Panther group have been around for decades and evolved over time with younger and more athletic accomplices being recruited.
“However, one of the robbers caught on CCTV looked quite portly and may have been older.
List of looted treasures
THESE are the eight “priceless” pieces of jewellery stolen in the smash-and-grab raid on the Louvre museum in Paris
- Tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
- Necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
- Earring, from the pair belonging to the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
- Emerald necklace from the Empress Marie Louise set
- Pair of emerald earrings from the Empress Marie Louise set
- Brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”
- Tiara of Empress Eugenie
- Large corsage bow brooch of Empress Eugenie
Another item – the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie – was reportedly recovered from outside the window but broken.
“To use a hoist in broad daylight was incredibly audacious.
“It was done with military precision which leads back again to the Pink Panther group of ex-soldiers.”
Mr Phillips added: “The method of the robbery suggests an element of intelligence.
“It is hard to believe they wouldn’t have had an inside agent at the Louvre to identify weakness in the security systems.
“The robbers would have done a lot of planning and preparation.”
Mr Phillips said the Louvre raid was an embarrassment to the French.
He said: “Any security system starts with the outer layer and works inwards.
“The outer layer here was the outside of the building which they have breached very easily.
“The French are saying they are in the process of reviewing their security at museums and galleries.
“Well, they need to get a move on.”
A third of the wing where the treasure was stolen did not even have CCTV cameras, according to French media reports.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Sunday announced security measures would be tightened around museums and galleries.
The French government admitted security protocols had “failed” and given the country a “terrible image.”
President Emmanuel Macron described the raid as “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history.”
Meanwhile, the head of an organisation specialising in recovering artworks also warned that if the robbers were not caught in the next 24 to 48 hours the stolen jewellery is likely to be “long gone.”
Chris Marinello, chief executive of Art Recovery International, told BBC World Service “there is a race going on right now.”
He also believed the thieves will break up their haul and recut the gems.
Mr Marinell added that French cops “know that in the next 24 or 48 hours, if these thieves are not caught, those pieces are probably long gone.”
Has the Louvre been targeted before?
SUNDAY’S robbery is far from the first time France’s most well-known museum has been targeted.
Farewell Mona Lisa
On August 11, 1911, the Mona Lisa became the focus of one of the most audacious robberies of the 20th century.
Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian immigrant who had briefly worked at the museum, walked into the Louvre unchallenged dressed in his old work uniform.
Peruggia took the painting off the wall and walked out with it under his top.
No one noticed for 24 hours as workers believed it had been moved for conservation or photography.
A year of robberies
1976 saw multiple strikes by gangs inside the Louvre.
In January, burglars pinched a Flemish painting from the museum.
In December of the same year, masked men burgled a jeweled sword once owned by French King Charles X.
They accessed the museum from a second-floor scaffold with the sword yet to be recovered.
A decade of security blunders
The 1990s saw another three thefts take place within the museum’s walls.
In 1990, thieves took a small Renoir painting as they cut it from its frame in broad daylight.
Along 12 pieces of ancient Roman jewellery and a few other paintings were also taken.
Five years later, two objects were stolen in a single week and prompted a major security increase.
It ultimately proved fruitless as in 1998, a Camille Corot painting was cut from its frame and disappeared.
It has yet to be recovered.
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