PARIS: French police have arrested two men suspected of taking part in the audacious daylight robbery of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, authorities said on Sunday, in a case that has shocked France and raised questions about museum security.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that police carried out arrests on Saturday evening, after French media reports revealed that two men had been detained in connection with the 19 October heist.
According to Le Parisien and Paris Match, one suspect was apprehended at Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Algeria. The second suspect was arrested shortly afterwards in the greater Paris region.
A source close to the investigation told AFP that the suspects, both in their 30s and originally from the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb north of Paris, were already known to police. They are being held in custody on suspicion of organised theft and criminal conspiracy.
Beccuau declined to provide details about the suspects but criticised the leak of information to the press, saying it could hinder the work of the roughly 100 investigators assigned to the case.
“This revelation can only hinder the investigative efforts of the 100 or so mobilised investigators, both in the search for the stolen jewellery and for all the perpetrators. It is too early to provide any specific details,” she said in a statement.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez congratulated investigators on the arrests but gave no further comment.
Daring daylight robbery stuns France
The heist took place in broad daylight on 19 October, when four hooded robbers used a crane and cutting tools to break into an upstairs gallery of the world’s most-visited museum.
They made off with eight pieces of royal jewellery worth an estimated $102 million (around €94 million), escaping on motorbikes within minutes.
Among the stolen treasures were a tiara and earrings belonging to Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, as well as an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte had given to his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.
As they fled, the robbers dropped an emerald- and diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, which was later found damaged outside the museum.
The brazen theft, which took advantage of a blind spot in the Louvre’s external surveillance system, triggered public outrage and a debate in France over the protection of cultural heritage.
Investigation and security concerns
Prosecutor Beccuau said that surveillance footage from both public and private cameras had allowed police to track the suspects’ movements across Paris and surrounding regions.
Investigators also found dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints at the scene, according to local media reports.
The Louvre’s director admitted that the thieves had exploited a weakness in the museum’s security coverage.
In response, the museum has transferred some of its most valuable jewels to the nearby Bank of France for safekeeping.
According to French radio station RTL, the transfer was carried out under heavy police escort on Friday. The Bank of France, located about 500 metres from the museum on the Right Bank of the Seine, stores the country’s gold reserves in a vault 27 metres below ground.
Museum thefts across France
The Louvre robbery is the latest in a string of thefts targeting French museums. Less than a day after the heist, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins.
In September, criminals broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum and stole gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million. A woman has since been arrested and charged in connection with that case.
