The Louvre failed to spot a gang of thieves early enough to stop the theft of €88m (£76m) worth of French crown jewels, the museum's director has revealed.
Laurence des Cars, speaking publicly for the first time since the heist on Sunday, told French senators that CCTV around the Louvre's perimeter was weak and aging. The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said.
We failed these jewels, she said, adding that no one was protected from brutal criminals - not even the Louvre.
Ministers have given press conferences and interviews to deny security failings, but des Cars cut through that and admitted the Louvre had been defeated. Her words provided an extraordinary insight into the difficulty of securing the world's most visited museum and how bad its security really was.
The CCTV system outside the Louvre was very unsatisfactory, she said, and some areas inside were simply too old to adapt to modern technologies. Despite the museum's huge visitor volume - 8.7 million last year - investment in security has been slow, highlighting budget challenges faced by large institutions.
Des Cars, who became director in 2021, expressed her intention to double the number of CCTV cameras. She revealed that she was warned about the obsolete equipment when she took the job, contrasting it with the modern equipment at the Musée d'Orsay, where she had worked previously.
Some senators expressed incredulity at the Louvre's security, questioning the rationale behind having just one camera on the external wall facing the river and why it was pointing the wrong way.
This failure allowed the lorry carrying the gang and their mechanical ladder, used to breach the gallery's first floor, to go unnoticed as it arrived. There is a weakness at the Louvre and I acknowledge it completely, des Cars told the senators.
While she praised security guards for promptly evacuating the building upon becoming aware of the intrusion, she admitted: We did not spot the arrival of the thieves early enough... the weakness of our perimeter protection is known.
The Louvre has reopened, though the gallery remains closed, and a hunt is still underway for the gang who stole eight prized jewelry pieces, including a necklace given by Emperor Napoleon to his wife. During their escape, they dropped a 19th-century diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugenie, which was recovered but damaged.
Des Cars is calling for urgent upgrades to the museum's security infrastructure, which has suffered from cuts and neglect over the past decade. Plans for improvement work are expected to begin in 2026, although challenges remain due to the aging physical structure of the museum.
She asserted her commitment to improving security and taking responsibility for the museum's shortcomings, indicating that her warnings about inadequate security had indeed manifested in the recent heist.
