The Louvre’s Director Laurence des Automobiles appeared earlier than the French Senate yesterday, October 22, addressing questions on Sunday’s brazen jewel heist on the museum as investigators proceed their seek for the culprits.
In a two-hour livestreamed questioning, des Automobiles, who took the helm of the museum in 2021, answered questions in regards to the heist posed by the Tradition Committee of the French Senate, admitting that the Louvre campus had inadequate or decrepit safety infrastructure. Maybe most damning was des Automobiles’s admission {that a} perimeter video surveillance digicam was pointing away from the suspects throughout the minutes-long theft. She reportedly additionally mentioned that she supplied to resign from her publish, however her request was denied.
Throughout her testimony, des Automobiles highlighted what she mentioned have been her earlier makes an attempt to name consideration to insufficient and outdated museum safety, together with a previous testimony earlier than the French Senate in September of 2024 wherein she warned of inadequate safety infrastructure. De Automobiles was accompanied by different Louvre leaders, together with Deputy Normal Administrator Francis Steinbock and Safety Chief Dominique Buffin, who’s the primary girl to carry the function and has confronted misogynistic backlash on-line for the reason that heist.
“I’ve constantly drawn the eye of our supervisory authorities, the nationwide illustration, and the media to the state of disrepair and basic obsolescence of the Louvre, its buildings, and its infrastructure,” des Automobiles testified.
Des Automobiles’s look earlier than the committee coincided with the Louvre’s post-heist reopening. A spokesperson for the museum instructed Hyperallergic that timed-entry tickets have been fully booked via the week, as that they had been earlier than the high-profile crime. Macron reportedly ordered the “dashing up” of safety measures on the museum on Wednesday. The Louvre spokesperson declined to reply Hyperallergic‘s query about whether or not further safety measures had been carried out earlier than the museum reopened.
In keeping with des Automobiles’s testimony, the museum was present process gradual safety enhancements. The upgrades happened in phases for numerous causes, de Automobiles mentioned, together with the massive dimension of the Louvre campus and public curiosity in protecting the museum open. A number of the renewal initiatives have been anticipated to start in early 2026.
“It will be inconceivable to shut the Louvre to the general public,” de Automobiles mentioned. “They essentially happen over a number of years.”
De Automobiles mentioned that the museum started putting in new perimeter fences in 2022 and has expanded the safety employees by 5.5% since she assumed her publish in 2021. Nonetheless, employees morale seemed to be at a regarding low when workers went on strike in June, citing exhaustion and poor working situations associated to mass tourism. The museum closed for the day in consequence.
The robbers entered the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon at 9:30am on Sunday morning, in response to des Automobiles’s testimony, triggering alarms. “Growing old” safety cameras, together with one pointing away from the window entry level, didn’t seize footage of the suspects breaking into the museum and stealing the Nineteenth-century crown jewels. 5 minutes later, a museum operations employees member known as the police. De Automobiles mentioned museum employees chased the suspects, which prevented them from incinerating their car. 4 people made off with eight crown jewels, together with an emerald set containing gems reportedly originating in Colombia and a tiara set with diamonds and pearls probably from the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean. The estimated worth of the stolen objects stands at roughly €88 million (~$102 million).
A video that emerged yesterday exhibits not less than two people, one carrying a bright-yellow security vest resembling these worn by development staff, quickly descending the car’s basket-lift contraption.
De Automobiles advised short- and long-term safety measures to be carried out on the Louvre, together with the opportunity of a police station contained in the museum, restrictions on car entry close to the constructing, and enhanced intruder detection expertise.
Consultants worry that the jewels can be melted down and offered on the black market, making the prospect of a secure return to the museum unlikely. Although French authorities discovered traces of DNA on objects discarded by the robbers, no suspects have been recognized as of publication, and the Worldwide Felony Police Group has issued a worldwide alert for the artifacts.
