{"id":258676,"date":"2025-10-29T12:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258676\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T12:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:35:08","slug":"police-acknowledge-major-louvre-security-gaps-after-jewel-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258676\/","title":{"rendered":"Police acknowledge major Louvre security gaps after jewel heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre\u2019s defenses on Wednesday \u2014 turning this month\u2019s dazzling daylight theft<\/a> into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.<\/p>\n

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the world\u2019s most-visited museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cA technological step has not been taken,\u201d he said, noting parts of the video network are even still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.<\/p>\n

A long-promised revamp \u2014 a $93 million project requiring roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) of new cabling \u2014 \u201cwill not be finished before 2029\u20132030,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Faure also disclosed that the Louvre\u2019s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn\u2019t renewed \u2014 a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence after thieves forced a window to the Apollo Gallery, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels<\/a> within minutes while tourists were inside. <\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers arrived extremely fast,\u201d Faure said, but he added the lag occurred earlier in the chain \u2014 from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.<\/p>\n

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre\u2019s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift. <\/p>\n

Suspects\u2019 custody expiring<\/p>\n

Officials say two suspects were arrested over the weekend, including one stopped at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport as he tried to leave France. Under French rules for organized theft, custody can run up to 96 hours; that limit expires late Wednesday, when prosecutors must charge the suspects, release them, or seek a judge\u2019s extension. The Louvre values the eight stolen pieces at about $102 million. None has been confirmed recovered.<\/p>\n

The theft has also exposed an insurance blind spot: officials say the jewels were not privately insured. The French state self-insures its national museums, because premiums for covering priceless heritage are astronomically high \u2014 meaning the Louvre will receive no payout for the loss. The financial blow, like the cultural wound, is total.<\/p>\n

Faure pushed back on quick fixes. He rejected calls for a permanent police post inside the palace-museum, warning it would set an unworkable precedent and do little against fast, mobile crews. \u201cI am firmly opposed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.<\/p>\n

The Oct. 19 heist was swift and simple. In the morning rush, thieves reached the jewel gallery near streetside windows, cut through reinforced cases and vanished in minutes. Former bank robber David Desclos told the AP the operation was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious<\/a> in the layout of the gallery.<\/p>\n

Museum and culture officials under pressure<\/p>\n

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has stayed defensive \u2014 refusing the Louvre director\u2019s resignation and insisting alarms worked while acknowledging \u201csecurity gaps did exist.\u201d She has kept details to a minimum, citing ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

The reckoning lands at a museum already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike<\/a> \u2014 including security agents \u2014 over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and \u201cuntenable\u201d conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing fa\u00e7ade and reached a hall displaying the crown jewels.<\/p>\n

Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time \u2014 before a scooter disappears into Paris traffic and diamonds into history.<\/p>\n

Experts fear the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past \u2014 a prospect that adds urgency to France\u2019s debate over how it guards what the world comes to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre\u2019s defenses on Wednesday \u2014 turning this month\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,2224,227,3071,139773,229,88,1076,594,793,4381,149,130880,593,139772,130878,22148,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-258676","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-arts-and-entertainment","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-david-desclos","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-france","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-law-enforcement","20":"tag-lifestyle","21":"tag-louvre-museum","22":"tag-paris","23":"tag-patrice-faure","24":"tag-rachida-dati","25":"tag-theft","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}