After robbers broke into the Louvre in October, stealing crown jewels worth about $100 million, the museum’s director said they had entered undetected because a key security camera had been facing the wrong way.
Now, investigators from the French culture ministry have found that the thieves’ entrance was recorded. The real problem, the investigators said on Wednesday in a hearing at the French senate, was that it took too long — up to eight minutes — for security guards in the museum’s control room to switch to the live feed.
By that time, the thieves were already making their getaway, the investigators said.
This conclusion has amplified scrutiny of the security lapses that led to the heist, which was considered a national embarrassment in France. It was among several new revelations at the hearing that have revived calls for the resignation of Laurence des Cars, the museum’s embattled director. Ms. des Cars told the same senate committee in October that the break-in was not captured on camera, repeating that explanation in an interview last month with The New York Times.
The Louvre declined to comment.
Police officers and security guards reached the site of the break-in 30 seconds after the thieves had escaped. Several errors stopped them from arriving minutes earlier.
Museum staff gave officers the name of the long, narrow room where the jewelry was held, but didn’t specify which end of the gallery to go to.
As a result of the staff’s mistake, police officers headed to the wrong side of the building and had to turn around when they realized the error.
Two prior audits identified problems with the museum’s security in 2017 and 2019, but the findings were not communicated to Ms. des Cars and her team when she was appointed director in 2021.
The findings compounded a sense of crisis at the museum, where staff members from three labor unions are set to begin a days long strike on Sunday night to protest what union leaders described as an “ever-increasing workload,” confusing instructions from the museum’s leadership and an unsympathetic management style. The threats of a strike came days after the museum acknowledged that up to 400 documents in its Egyptian antiquities library had been damaged by a water pipe leak.
The Louvre heist began at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 19, when robbers arrived in a truck and soon climbed a ladder to reach a second-floor balcony and used grinders to force open a window.
The investigators said parts of the Louvre’s immediate response were proficient. Alarms were sounded as soon as the robbers broke in, and security guards took precautions to protect nearby visitors, the investigators said.
But museum officials failed to communicate effectively with the police about the location of the break-in, the investigators said, and were slow to watch live footage of the sidewalk.
By the time the thieves escaped, less than eight minutes after arriving in front of the building, the museum’s security guards were only just switching over to the live feed. The museum’s control room does not have enough screens to broadcast every camera feed simultaneously, even though an audit in August recommended installing more screens, the investigators said. Guards had to manually toggle between different cameras, the investigators said, so instead of watching the escape route, they had been focusing on feeds showing the museum’s entrances.
“Of the two cameras near the scene, only one was operational,” Noël Corbin, an inspector at the ministry who led the investigation, told senators on Wednesday morning. “But it was sufficient, despite its poor quality, to allow for preparations for the burglary to be seen.”
Mr. Corbin’s assertion contradicted one made soon after the heist by Ms. des Cars, who said at an inquiry that a nearby security camera had been facing in the wrong direction.
In a later interview with The Times, Ms. des Cars said the camera had faced “a major traffic artery,” adding that the orientation of the camera was also intended to monitor construction work in the area.
According to Mr. Corbin and his colleagues, the outdoor camera clearly captured the thieves arriving on a truck and using a ladder to reach the balcony, and then their escape at 9:38 a.m., when they descended and fled with several accomplices.
“An agent in the control room activated the camera’s zoom function to enlarge the image,” Mr. Corbin said. “But by then it was too late, as the thieves had already left.”
Mr. Corbin and his fellow investigators said that when Ms. des Cars became director in 2021, she was not briefed on the findings of two security audits conducted in 2017 and 2019, which pointed to security deficiencies, including a problem with the window through which the thieves entered.
Still, the revelations on Wednesday amplified scrutiny of Ms. des Cars.
“It’s clear that today there is, how shall we say, a kind of competition between teams to pass the buck,” Agnès Evren, a senator from the Republicans, a conservative party, told the committee on Wednesday.
“In light of all the new information,” Ms. Evren said, Ms. des Cars “should have resigned or submitted her resignation again.”
Another senator, Laure Darcos, a centrist, defended Ms. des Cars, saying she was the “collateral victim” of a broader failure.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
Credit: New York Times
Now, investigators from the French culture ministry have found that the thieves’ entrance was recorded. The real problem, the investigators said on Wednesday in a hearing at the French senate, was that it took too long — up to eight minutes — for security guards in the museum’s control room to switch to the live feed.
By that time, the thieves were already making their getaway, the investigators said.
This conclusion has amplified scrutiny of the security lapses that led to the heist, which was considered a national embarrassment in France. It was among several new revelations at the hearing that have revived calls for the resignation of Laurence des Cars, the museum’s embattled director. Ms. des Cars told the same senate committee in October that the break-in was not captured on camera, repeating that explanation in an interview last month with The New York Times.
The Louvre declined to comment.
Police officers and security guards reached the site of the break-in 30 seconds after the thieves had escaped. Several errors stopped them from arriving minutes earlier.
Museum staff gave officers the name of the long, narrow room where the jewelry was held, but didn’t specify which end of the gallery to go to.
As a result of the staff’s mistake, police officers headed to the wrong side of the building and had to turn around when they realized the error.
Two prior audits identified problems with the museum’s security in 2017 and 2019, but the findings were not communicated to Ms. des Cars and her team when she was appointed director in 2021.
The findings compounded a sense of crisis at the museum, where staff members from three labor unions are set to begin a days long strike on Sunday night to protest what union leaders described as an “ever-increasing workload,” confusing instructions from the museum’s leadership and an unsympathetic management style. The threats of a strike came days after the museum acknowledged that up to 400 documents in its Egyptian antiquities library had been damaged by a water pipe leak.
The Louvre heist began at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 19, when robbers arrived in a truck and soon climbed a ladder to reach a second-floor balcony and used grinders to force open a window.
The investigators said parts of the Louvre’s immediate response were proficient. Alarms were sounded as soon as the robbers broke in, and security guards took precautions to protect nearby visitors, the investigators said.
But museum officials failed to communicate effectively with the police about the location of the break-in, the investigators said, and were slow to watch live footage of the sidewalk.
By the time the thieves escaped, less than eight minutes after arriving in front of the building, the museum’s security guards were only just switching over to the live feed. The museum’s control room does not have enough screens to broadcast every camera feed simultaneously, even though an audit in August recommended installing more screens, the investigators said. Guards had to manually toggle between different cameras, the investigators said, so instead of watching the escape route, they had been focusing on feeds showing the museum’s entrances.
“Of the two cameras near the scene, only one was operational,” Noël Corbin, an inspector at the ministry who led the investigation, told senators on Wednesday morning. “But it was sufficient, despite its poor quality, to allow for preparations for the burglary to be seen.”
Mr. Corbin’s assertion contradicted one made soon after the heist by Ms. des Cars, who said at an inquiry that a nearby security camera had been facing in the wrong direction.
In a later interview with The Times, Ms. des Cars said the camera had faced “a major traffic artery,” adding that the orientation of the camera was also intended to monitor construction work in the area.
According to Mr. Corbin and his colleagues, the outdoor camera clearly captured the thieves arriving on a truck and using a ladder to reach the balcony, and then their escape at 9:38 a.m., when they descended and fled with several accomplices.
“An agent in the control room activated the camera’s zoom function to enlarge the image,” Mr. Corbin said. “But by then it was too late, as the thieves had already left.”
Mr. Corbin and his fellow investigators said that when Ms. des Cars became director in 2021, she was not briefed on the findings of two security audits conducted in 2017 and 2019, which pointed to security deficiencies, including a problem with the window through which the thieves entered.
Still, the revelations on Wednesday amplified scrutiny of Ms. des Cars.
“It’s clear that today there is, how shall we say, a kind of competition between teams to pass the buck,” Agnès Evren, a senator from the Republicans, a conservative party, told the committee on Wednesday.
“In light of all the new information,” Ms. Evren said, Ms. des Cars “should have resigned or submitted her resignation again.”
Another senator, Laure Darcos, a centrist, defended Ms. des Cars, saying she was the “collateral victim” of a broader failure.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
Credit: New York Times
