Paris Museum Robbery Puts Focus on Protection Issues

Breaking into the world’s most-visited museum in broad daylight, taking eight pieces of priceless Napoleonic jewellery and vanishing into Paris traffic on humble scooters may seem like the boldest of crimes, carried out for global fame and subsequent Hollywood film treatments.

Specialists who observe patterns in global cultural theft, however, see Sunday morning’s heist at the Louvre as something more prosaic: the latest in a string of smash-and-grab thefts centered more on the material value of precious stones or materials than the artifacts’ significance, continuing a trend that has appeared over the last decade in Europe, Britain and the US. The location, they suggest, would have been of lesser importance to the thieves.

“One might wonder why thieves who want to take valuable jewellery are breaking into a world-famous museum rather than a luxury jewelry store,” stated an expert in art recovery. “It's straightforward: it’s because nowadays a high-end boutique is better protected.”

A series of aggressive retail store thefts mean that many stores have strengthened their security in the past few years, with security personnel on their premises and merchandise no longer shown overnight. Museums, on the other hand, look more exposed, in part because of the inherent reason of being accessible institutions in older structures, and also the current economic climate in many developed nations.

“Since Covid, authorities across the world have reduced spending on police and the arts funding,” said Marinello. “If thieves can get into the Louvre, it shows how at risk our institutions have become. This is a horrible time to be a museum.”

The robbery of the items – featuring jewelry pieces made up of precious stones and 631 diamonds, the crown of a historical figure featuring thousands of diamonds and a hugely valuable diadem once possessed by Napoleon III’s wife that the thieves dropped by the roadside on their way out – has inevitably been compared with the historical theft of the famous painting from the same museum, performed by the worker the thief.

More relevant points of reference may be the recent burglary of valuables from Dresden’s Green Vault Museum worth over €113m, the taking of a multi-million pound gold toilet from a UK landmark the same year, the recent heist of a large gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum or even a spate of robberies of collector items from US mining museums.

“It's a clear trend here,” said Marinello. “Smash, grab, and melt it down as rapidly as possible.”

If the artefacts were to remain intact, specialists say, the thieves would find it hard to sell them. “There’s no way to sell something as recognizable as the Louvre’s jewels on the licit market”, said Lynda Albertson of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

“They are too well-known, particularly given the Ministry of Culture has released images of the items. Even a private collector or an auction house would want to see documentation confirming proper ownership before handling such striking pieces.”

In the previous years, institutions were often hesitant to go public about the loss of famous works of art and would remain quiet out of embarrassment. Now, as art thefts are more widely publicised, the storage and sale of taken items is dangerous for any criminal.

“Taking a famous painting, it has to remain intact or it becomes valueless, and you have to conceive of a plan to keep it in hiding, maybe by passing it around dangerous individuals,” noted Marinello. “And you’re constantly exposed to the risk of an accomplice informing authorities to cash in a reward.”

For comparable factors, an art detective said it was vanishingly unlikely that the theft had been ordered. “Commissioned theft is something from Hollywood movies,” he said. “Nobody would touch this. It's global news and in all the media. If you buy this, if you are apprehended, you end up in prison. You cannot show it to your acquaintances, you cannot bequeath it to your children.”

Altering stolen works by dismantling or re-cutting does lower the value. When it comes to gems, it also comes with significant danger because contemporary cutting techniques give gems a larger and lighter appearance, and older-style stones would either draw unwanted attention or barter the price down for a coverup.

Importantly, however, dismantling or reshaping eliminates the proof of the theft. “I suspect that the robbers will try to take the items to places with gem knowledge like a country, India or even as close as a city, and locate an expert to remove the stones,” suggested Marinello.

The heist at the Louvre has already raised questions about protective steps at the museum, with a unauthorized state auditor report expected to be published next month pointing out “significant” and “persistent” delays in updating equipment and observing that security cameras were lacking in many rooms. But specialists say displaying valuable objects in older structures with a constant flow of guests comes with dangers that are impossible to remove entirely.

“Historic buildings are more difficult to protect,” said an art crime professor. “They often have large accessible windows that makes it easy for criminals to escape, and there may be preservation laws in place that mean you are unable to install them with proper bulletproof glass.”

The best security systems for buildings should be designed “like a fortress”, noted a security advisor. “There should be several layers to repel intruders.”

Contemporary structures are fitted with state-of-the-art surveillance systems or integrated seismic detectors that raise alarm about a smashed window in real time, but historic institutions may be reluctant to uglify their exteriors. Laser scanners can be difficult to install to decorated surfaces. Motion and sound detectors may also have to be disabled during the day as crowds stomp through a museum.

The timing of the robbery, which took place between morning hours in Paris, was typical of modern robberies, Stürmann said. “It's logical why thefts tend to happen at either opening or closing times. Frequently when security change their shifts and before the museum is crowded who effectively act as additional security staff.”

Advances in technology may have thrown up new gadgets that can notify more rapidly and effectively, but it has also given robbers new tools with which to bypass protections. In Paris, the thieves accessed the museum’s upper level with a mobile equipment and breached a window with a battery-powered disc cutter.

Elaine Sciolino said the conversation in France about the 232-year-old building had primarily centered on crowd control in the past decade, and not as much on security.

The institution has an on-site brigade of about 50 full-time emergency personnel, but their mission is mostly to safeguard the artworks from fires and water damage. “There isn't a rapid-response unit,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the safety of the Louvre all comes down to government support and money, and currently the nation lacks sufficient resources.”