Editor’s Note
This article details the damning conclusions of an official investigation into the Louvre heist, revealing a critical underestimation of security risks.
Nearly two months after the heist at the Louvre, the French Senate heard testimony this Wednesday from those responsible for the administrative investigation commissioned by the Ministry of Culture. The investigation’s findings are damning.
acknowledged Noël Corbin, head of the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs, on Wednesday, December 10. Nearly two months after the spectacular theft of jewels from the Louvre, those responsible for an administrative investigation into security flaws presented their conclusions before the Senate’s culture committee.
that’s the word used by Laurent Lafon, president of the Senate’s culture committee, to summarize the failures in the security system of the world’s largest museum,
For his part, Noël Corbin admitted being
to find that a
and
museum like the Louvre
It appears the burglars could have been stopped
One of the investigation’s rapporteurs, Pascal Mignerey, highlighted that an exterior camera had filmed
But the footage from this single exterior surveillance camera was never monitored live due to an insufficient number of screens in the museum’s security control room. When an agent activated them:
explained Noël Corbin.
This heist
asserted the president of the Senate committee, and
while the flaws
Such as an audit by the jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels on the Apollo Gallery as early as 2019, during which flaws were detected but whose recommendations were not all followed. Notably, its recommendations concerned the balcony and the window through which the thieves entered.
The hearings by the Senate committee will continue next week. The President-Director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, will be heard again on Wednesday while a strike by museum staff is planned starting Monday. They are denouncing insufficient resources.