Editor’s Note
This investigation reveals a critical 30-second security lapse that allowed the Louvre jewel heist, underscoring systemic failures in how the museum addresses security audits.
The escape of the jewel thieves from the Louvre could have been prevented “within 30 seconds,” a senior official of the administrative investigation stated before the Senate on Wednesday. The investigation also highlights a major problem in how security audits are taken into account within the famous museum.
said Noël Corbin, head of the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (Igac), referring to the October 19th incident.
According to the other rapporteur of the investigation, Pascal Mignerey from the Ministry of Culture’s Security, Safety, and Audit Mission (Missa), an external camera “clearly filmed the arrival of the thieves, the installation of the platform, the ascent of the two thieves to the balcony, and, a few minutes later, their hasty departure.”
However, these images were not monitored live. When a security agent activated them, “it was already too late because the thieves had left the Apollo Gallery,” where the Crown Jewels were exhibited, Mr. Corbin specified before the Senate’s culture committee. Furthermore, the alerted police were directed towards the Carrousel du Louvre, in the wrong direction.
The circumstances of this heist, which stunned the world, illustrate “the general failure of the museum as well as its oversight in considering security issues,” judged the committee’s chairman, centrist senator Laurent Lafon.
While conducting the administrative investigation, Noël Corbin was “very strongly surprised” to find that a “gigantic” and “iconic” museum like the Louvre “could be so fragile.”
added police commissioner Guy Tubiana, a museum security expert who participated in the investigation.
Mr. Corbin particularly pointed out “the problem of transmitting security audits” within the museum, notably during the change in its presidency in 2021 and the arrival of Laurence des Cars. Symbolic of this lack of “institutional memory,” an audit conducted in 2019 by the jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels, which had identified weaknesses in the Apollo Gallery, was thus not brought to the attention of the new management.
According to Mr. Corbin, its recommendations, which concerned the balcony and the window used by the thieves to enter, “could have allowed for measures to be taken likely to prevent intrusion from the outside.”
The former president of the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, Jean-Luc Martinez, silent until now, will have the opportunity to explain himself regarding these accusations before the same committee next Tuesday. The next day, senators will again question Laurence des Cars, who has been under strong pressure since the heist but whose offer of resignation was rejected by the government.
Without waiting for the confidential report, Rachida Dati revealed the first conclusions of the investigation at the end of October and pointed to “an underestimation” of risks for “more than 20 years” at the Louvre. She subsequently announced several “emergency measures,” including the installation of “anti-intrusion” devices on the building and its surroundings. During an emergency board meeting, the Louvre approved these measures which, due to a lack of new recruitment, left the unions unsatisfied.
According to union sources, other actions to strengthen the museum’s organization and security should be announced by the end of the year.
Separately, the Court of Auditors announced on Wednesday that it had examined the functioning of the Société des Amis du Louvre (SAL) for the period 2018-2024. The body pointed out “many structural weaknesses” in the “statutory and organizational framework” of this association founded in 1897, composed of more than 65,000 members and the museum’s leading private patron. The Court recommends, among other things, the revision of the statutes “by 2026,” the adoption of a “new agreement with the Louvre museum,” and the completion of an “independent social audit before the end of 2025.”