{"id":213257,"date":"2025-10-20T13:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/213257\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:57:09","slug":"louvre-heist-puts-pressure-on-french-government-over-museum-security-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/213257\/","title":{"rendered":"Louvre heist puts pressure on French government over museum security | Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

The French government is under increasing pressure over museum security as police continue to search for thieves who took seven minutes to steal priceless jewels<\/a> from the Louvre, the world\u2019s most-visited museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels, and give France<\/a> a terrible image,\u201d the justice minister, G\u00e9rald Darmanin, told France Inter radio on Monday.<\/p>\n

Police were trying to discover what level of organised criminals had been involved in the highly professional raid<\/a>, he said. A team of 60 investigators is working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.<\/p>\n

A tiara worn by the Empress Eug\u00e9nie was targeted by thieves during the heist. Photograph: Louvre Museum\/Reuters<\/p>\n

A gang of four thieves used the hoist to access an outside window in full daylight when the museum was open to visitors on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The men used a truck with an extendable ladder like those used by furniture movers in order to get access to the Apollo gallery, the gilded room that houses the royal collection and crown jewels. They used cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases, taking jewels from two cases in the ornate gallery that is one of the most-visited rooms in the museum. Some were dressed in hi-vis jackets like builders.<\/p>\n

Louvre theft aerial view <\/a>Apollo gallery plan<\/a><\/p>\n

The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which \u2013 the crown of the Empress Eug\u00e9nie \u2013 they dropped and damaged as they made their escape. It is covered in 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds.<\/p>\n

Darmanin said questions could be asked about why the museum\u2019s windows were not secured. Speaking on CNews, the culture minister, Rachida Dati, said the thieves had attempted to set fire to the furniture hoist but had failed, leaving evidence behind as they fled.<\/p>\n

Some of the jewels from the Apollo wing of the Louvre. Composite: Louvre.fr<\/p>\n

The far right called the theft \u201ca humiliation\u201d for France. \u201cHow far will the disintegration of the state go?\u201d said the National Rally party leader, Jordan Bardella, on social media, calling the heist \u201can unbearable humiliation for our country\u201d.<\/p>\n

After several other robberies from French museums in recent months, the interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, acknowledged that securing museums was a \u201cmajor weak spot\u201d.<\/p>\n

The president, Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, said on social media that everything was being done to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.<\/p>\n

The culture ministry said security alarms had gone off when the cases were opened and museum security guards immediately enacted the security protocol. The thieves fled, leaving behind some of their equipment.<\/p>\n

The main entrance to the Louvre. Photograph: Yoan Valat\/EPA<\/p>\n

The museum remained closed on Monday.<\/p>\n

As questions were asked over whether enough had been done to secure it, trade unions said that, in general, not enough investment was being made into staffing and security at French cultural venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collections aren\u2019t safe, the visitors aren\u2019t safe and the staff aren\u2019t either,\u201d Yvan Navarroa co-secretary general of the culture branch of the leftwing CGT union told France Info. He said cuts over recent years meant there was a lack of security staffing for French culture and heritage.<\/p>\n

France Inter radio obtained a state auditor report due to published next month which criticised \u201cconsiderable\u201d and \u201cpersistent\u201d delays in updating equipment at the Louvre and warned that security cameras were lacking in many rooms.<\/p>\n

France Inter reported that when the Louvre\u2019s director, Laurence des Cars, took over in 2021, she had asked the Paris<\/a> police for a security audit. The current project for a major overhaul of the Louvre includes heightened security measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French government is under increasing pressure over museum security as police continue to search for thieves who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-213257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}