![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00235915-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nLast month’s spectacular Louvre robbery, in which thieves made off with some of France’s crown jewels, is a “deafening wake-up call” for museum security, the head of France’s highest audit institution has said.<\/p>\n
Upgrades to security at the world-renowned museum have been moving at a “woefully inadequate pace”, Pierre Moscovici told a press conference to present the audit court’s report on the Paris museum.<\/p>\n
The report found that the museum began a security audit a decade ago, but the recommended upgrades will not be completed until 2032.<\/p>\n
The daylight robbery, in which four robbers made off with jewels worth \u20ac88 million, raised doubts over the credibility of the world’s most-visited museum as a guardian for its myriad works.<\/p>\n
Officials have admitted security was not up to scratch.<\/p>\n
While investigators have charged four suspects for involvement in the raid, the treasures have yet to be recovered.<\/p>\n
Excerpts from the report, which was published this morning by the national audit office, known as the Cour des Comptes, had already leaked in the media days after the raid.<\/p>\n
Only 39% of the museum’s rooms had cameras as of 2024, the report said, and a security audit begun in 2015, which found the museum was not sufficiently monitored or prepared for a crisis, only led to a tender for security works at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
“It will take several years to complete the project, which, according to the museum, is not expected to be finished until 2032,” the report said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It said the museum’s inability to update its infrastructure was exacerbated by excessive spending to buy artwork, only a quarter of which is exposed to the public, and post-pandemic relaunch projects, as well as inefficiencies and ticket fraud.<\/p>\n
Even the development initiatives it announced this year were not based on feasibility studies, whether technical or financial, and did not consider staffing needs, the report said.<\/p>\n
The report provided ten recommendations, including a drop in the number of acquisitions by the museum, an increase in its ticket prices and a refurbishment of its digital infrastructure and governance.<\/p>\n
In the face of a “chronic under-investment in information systems”, the auditor said, “the museum must strengthen its internal control function, which remains underdeveloped for an institution the size of the Louvre”.<\/p>\n
The theft only reinforces some of the considerations made in the report, Mr Moscovici told journalists.<\/p>\n
“The theft of the crown jewels was without a doubt a deafening alarm bell: this pace [of security upgrades] is far from sufficient,” he said. “The authorities are now realising that they have heard these alarm bells.”<\/p>\n
He said the Louvre has sufficient funds for the upgrades needed, and “now it must do so without fail”.<\/p>\n
After the robbery, French officials said the Louvre would introduce extra security, including anti-intrusion devices and anti-vehicle ramming barriers on nearby public roads, by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
In January, amid growing complaints about disarray at the museum, France launched an ambitious development project involving a new space dedicated to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous painting, and new security steps to protect its visitors and precious exhibits.<\/p>\n
In written remarks published by the audit office, Culture Minister Rachida Dati said she agreed on the urgency of the technical work and reiterated calls for swift corrective measures.<\/p>\n
Louvre director Laurence des Cars said in the same document that she supported most of the auditor’s recommendations but insisted the museum’s long-term transformation plan is essential to address its structural challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month’s spectacular Louvre robbery, in which thieves made off with some of France’s crown jewels, is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-124906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}