Two men captured by French authorities this weekend while attempting to flee the country have admitted “partially” being involved in the spectacular €88 million ($102 million) jewelry heist at the Louvre museum on Sunday, Oct. 19, Paris prosecutor Laure Becuau said Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Bekuu said the men face preliminary charges of theft and criminal conspiracy by an organized gang.
Following their arrests at Charles de Gaulle airport and in the northern Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, both men were taken into custody. Prosecutors were required to charge him, release him, or seek an extension from the court if he were detained for more than 96 hours after his arrest.
Still don’t know where the historic Louvre loot may be
At least two more criminals are still absconding. Even more importantly, perhaps, are the historic crown jewels stolen during the heist.
In their race against time, authorities fear that the stolen jewels, which included Napoleon’s crown, brooches, and necklaces, may have been broken, smelted, and the thousands of gems and diamonds they contain have been gilded to hide their historical origins.
Their destruction would be an obvious loss not only to the French nation and its people, but also to the museum, even more so given that the jewels were not privately insured due to their extreme value, meaning the Louvre would not receive an insurance payout.
Police chief says there are no easy solutions
This week, Paris police chief Patrice Faure said the museum’s security system was outdated and inadequate, noting that thieves had taken advantage of apparent shortcomings in it.
The system, which is analog and does not allow sharing of real-time imagery, is no longer accessible even to Louvre security, Faure said, adding that a clerical error led to the termination of the museum’s operating authority in July.
Faure said that although “officers arrived very quickly” they were already running late due to delays within the system. In fact, police were not alerted by the museum’s alarm system at all, but by a cyclist who called after seeing men in a lift truck outside the museum on Sunday morning.
Faure told French lawmakers that the reckless call for a greater police presence in front of the museum was meaningless, adding, “This is not about a guard standing at a door, it’s about triggering a chain of alerts.”
Instead, Faure called on politicians to authorize tools that have so far been banned for privacy reasons – such as allowing AI anomaly detection and object-tracking systems and city surveillance cameras to track individual vehicles or objects in real time to flag suspicious activity.
The long-pending $93 million renovation of the museum and its security system, Foray said, “will not be completed until 2029-2030.”
Edited by Shawn Sinico