Louvre failed to spot jewel thieves early enough, says museum boss

The Louvre failed to catch a gang of thieves early enough to stop the theft of €88m (£76m) of French crown jewels, the museum’s director has revealed.

Laurence de Carre, speaking publicly for the first time since Sunday’s robbery, told French senators that video surveillance around the Louvre’s perimeter was weak and “getting old.”

The only camera watching the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointed away from the first-floor balcony that led to the Apollo Gallery, where the jewels are kept, she said.

“We have failed these jewels,” she said, adding that no one is safe from “brutal criminals – not even the Louvre.”

Ministers gave press conferences and interviews and denied security lapses, but des Cars cut this short and admitted the Louvre had been “defeated”.

Her words gave an extraordinary insight into the difficulty of securing the world’s most visited museum and how poor its security really is.

The CCTV system outside the Louvre is “very unsatisfactory”, she said, and inside some areas are simply too old to adapt to modern technology.

Despite the museum’s huge visitor numbers – 8.7 million last year alone – investment in security has been slow, and she highlighted the budget challenges large institutions face.

Des Cars, who became director of the Louvre in 2021, said she wanted to double the number of CCTV cameras.

She said she was warned about how “outdated” the equipment at the Louvre was when she took the job, in contrast to the modern equipment at the Musée d’Orsay, where she previously worked.

Some of the senators she faced at Wednesday’s hearing expressed disbelief at the Louvre’s security, asking why there was only one camera — on the outer wall facing the river — and why it was pointing in the wrong direction.

This single breakdown meant that the truck carrying the band and their mechanical ladder used to reach the first floor of the gallery was not seen at all when it arrived at the foot of the Apollo gallery.

“There is a weakness in the Louvre and I fully admit it,” de Carre told the senators.

She praised the security guards, who she said acted quickly to evacuate the building as soon as they realized there had been a break-in, but admitted: “We didn’t notice the arrival of the thieves early enough … the weakness of our perimeter defenses is known.”

The museum reopened on Wednesday, although the gallery remained closed.

The Louvre is home to priceless works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The search is still on for the gang of four who broke into one of the world’s most famous museums in less than 10 minutes last Sunday morning. They escaped with eight prized jewels, including a diamond and emerald necklace given by Emperor Napoleon to his wife.

As they fled, they dropped a 19th-century diamond-encrusted crown belonging to the Empress Eugenie. Although it was found, the crown was damaged and Laurence de Carre told the senators that it was probably crushed when the thieves took it from the display case.

“Initial assessments suggest that a delicate recovery is possible,” Des Cars said.

Some of the museum’s problems she raised at the hearing include cutbacks in surveillance and security staff over the past decade and a decaying infrastructure that can’t keep up with the latest generation of video equipment.

The director hopes that work to improve security will begin in early 2026.

However, it is expected to be a challenge given the aging infrastructure of what was once a royal palace.

Des Cars said she resigned from the culture ministry after the robbery, but was turned down. She told senators that she had been expressing concern about the condition of the Louvre for some time.

She became animated, even outraged, as she defended herself against media claims that she had prioritized her own comfort over protecting the Louvre and its historic collections.

“I am hurt as a chairman and a director that the warnings that I have been giving, in a sense as a whistleblower, came true last Sunday.

“We had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I took responsibility for that,” she said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunes told France’s Europe1 radio on Wednesday that he had “full confidence” that the thieves would be caught.

Prosecutors said their theory is that the robbers were ordered by a criminal organization.