Editor’s Note
This article details a critical security failure at the Louvre, where a recent jewel heist was nearly prevented. An official investigation reveals a 30-second lapse and systemic issues in internal audit communication, raising serious questions about the museum’s protective measures.
The escape of the burglars who stole jewels from the Louvre on October 19 could have been prevented “by a margin of 30 seconds,” a senior official in the administrative investigation into the museum’s security told the Senate on Wednesday. The official also highlighted a major problem with the transmission of security audits within the institution.
Noël Corbin, Director of the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (Igac), told the Senate’s culture committee.
The other rapporteur of the investigation, Pascal Mignerey from the Ministry of Culture’s Security, Safety, and Audit Mission (Missa), emphasized that an external camera had “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, according to Noël Corbin, these images were not monitored live, and when a security agent activated them, “it was already too late as the thieves had left the Apollo Gallery,” where the Crown Jewels were exhibited.
In his opening remarks, the committee chairman, centrist Senator Laurent Lafon, stated that the report’s conclusions pointed to “the systemic failure of both the museum and its oversight body in addressing security issues” prior to the heist.
while the vulnerabilities “had all been identified by several previous studies with largely consistent results.”
Noël Corbin further stressed that the authors of the administrative investigation were “very surprised” by “the problem of transmitting security audits” within the museum, particularly 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 all the weaknesses of the Apollo Gallery, was not brought to the attention of the new management.
The Senate hearings take place in a still-gloomy context for the Louvre, forced to close a gallery due to damage and facing a call for a strike by its staff starting Monday.
In the aftermath of the heist, Culture Minister Rachida Dati ordered this administrative investigation to shed light on the security flaws at the world’s most visited museum.
Without waiting for the confidential report, Rachida Dati announced several “emergency measures,” including the installation of “anti-intrusion devices” on the building and in its surroundings. During an emergency board meeting, the Louvre approved these measures, which, due to a lack of new hires, left the unions dissatisfied.
Next week, the security of the Parisian museum will continue to occupy the same Senate committee. On Tuesday, it will question for the first time the former president of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, whose testimony is highly anticipated after the revelation of alarming security audits conducted during his tenure (2013-2021). On Wednesday, his successor, Laurence des Cars, will be heard again by the senators.