{"id":276109,"date":"2025-11-10T20:19:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T20:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276109\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T20:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T20:19:17","slug":"french-fedora-man-pictured-at-louvre-heist-scene-unmasked-as-teenager-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276109\/","title":{"rendered":"French ‘Fedora man’ pictured at Louvre heist scene unmasked as teenager"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux realised an Associated Press photo of him at the Louvre on the day of the crown jewels heist had drawn millions of views, his first instinct was not to rush online and unmask himself.<\/p>\n

Quite the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fan of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot who lives with his parents and grandfather in Rambouillet, 30 kilometres from Paris, Pedro decided to play along with the world’s suspense.<\/p>\n

As theories swirled about the sharply dressed stranger in the “Fedora man” shot \u2014 detective, insider, AI fake \u2014 he decided to stay silent and watch.<\/p>\n

How France’s crown jewels became an easy target<\/a><\/p>\n

As French authorities scour Europe for some of their nation’s most prized possessions, closer inspection of the Louvre museum itself reveals its vulnerabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With this photo there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”<\/p>\n

For his only in-person interview, wearing a fedora hat and Yves Saint Laurent waistcoat borrowed from his father, Pedro said he was paying homage to French Resistance hero Jean Moulin.<\/p>\n

In person, he is a bright, amused teenager who wandered, by accident, into a global story.<\/p>\n

Loading…From photo to viral fame\u00a0<\/p>\n

The image that made him famous was meant to document a crime scene.<\/p>\n

Three police officers lean on a silver car blocking a Louvre entrance, hours after thieves carried out a daylight raid on French crown jewels.<\/p>\n

To the right, a lone figure in a three-piece ensemble strides past \u2014 a flash of film noir in a modern-day manhunt.<\/p>\n

The internet did the rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fascinating history of art heists<\/a><\/p>\n

This latest heist at the Louvre highlights the vulnerability of objects in public collections. The irony is they are often gifted to such institutions for safekeeping.<\/p>\n

“Fedora man,” as users dubbed him, was cast as an old-school detective, an inside man, a Netflix pitch \u2014 or not human at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many were convinced he was AI-generated.<\/p>\n

Pedro understood why.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In the photo, I’m dressed more in the 1940s, and we are in 2025,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is a contrast.”<\/p>\n

The real story was simple. Pedro, his mother and grandfather had come to visit the Louvre.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to go to the Louvre, but it was closed,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We didn’t know there was a heist.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Armed guards had circled the Louvre as Pedro visited.\u00a0 (Reuters: Abdul\u00a0Saboor)<\/p>\n

They asked officers why the gates were shut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seconds later, AP photographer Thibault Camus, documenting the security cordon, caught Pedro mid-stride.<\/p>\n

Pedro was shocked he had become a star.<\/p>\n

“I was astonished that just with one photo you can become viral in a few days,” he said.The clues the Louvre thieves left behind<\/a><\/p>\n

A series of missteps shows the theft in the Louvre was far from a sleek operation. Instead, French authorities believe petty criminals executed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An inspired style<\/p>\n

Pedro began dressing this way less than a year ago, inspired by 20th-century history and black-and-white images of suited statesmen and fictional detectives.<\/p>\n

“I like to be chic,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I go to school like this.”<\/p>\n

The fedora is reserved for weekends, holidays and museum visits.<\/p>\n

At his no-uniform school, his style has already started to spread.<\/p>\n

“One of my friends came this week with a tie,” he said.<\/p>\n

Pedro understands why people projected the sleuth character onto him: improbable heist, improbable detective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux poses after an interview.\u00a0 (AP: Thibault Camus)<\/p>\n

He loves Poirot \u2014 “very elegant” \u2014 and likes the idea that an unusual crime calls for someone who looks unusual.<\/p>\n

“When something unusual happens, you don’t imagine a normal detective,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You imagine someone different.”<\/p>\n

The teen is relaxed about whatever comes next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m waiting for people to contact me for films,” he said, grinning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That would be very funny.”<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux realised an Associated Press photo of him at the Louvre on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,159523,159522,155140,158508],"class_list":["post-276109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-fake-detective","tag-fedora-man","tag-louvre-heist","tag-pedro-elias-garzon-delvaux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}