Louvre failed to spot jewel thieves early enough, says museum boss

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 and denied security failings, but des Cars cut through that and admitted the Louvre had been “defeated”.

Her words gave 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 inside, some areas were simply too old to adapt to modern technologies.

Despite the museum’s huge volume of visitors – 8.7 million last year alone – investment in security has been slow and she highlighted the budget challenges big institutions face.

Des Cars, who became director of the Louvre in 2021, said she wanted to double the number of CCTV cameras.

She said she was warned about how “obsolete” the equipment at the Louvre was when she took the job, in contrast to the modern equipment of the Musée d’Orsay, where she had worked previously.

Some of the senators she faced at Wednesday’s hearing expressed incredulity at the Louvre’s security, asking why there was just one camera – on the external wall facing the river – and why it was pointing the wrong way.

That single failure meant that the lorry carrying the gang and their mechanical ladder, used to reach the gallery’s first floor, was not spotted at all as it arrived at the foot of the Gallery of Apollo.

“There is a weakness at the Louvre and I acknowledge it completely,” des Cars told the senators.

She praised security guards who she said acted quickly to evacuate the building as soon as they were aware there had been an intrusion, but she conceded: “We did not spot the arrival of the thieves early enough… the weakness of our perimeter protection is known.”

The museum re-opened on Wednesday, although the gallery remained shut.

The Louvre is home to priceless works of art including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

A hunt is still under way for the gang of four who, over the space of less than 10 minutes last Sunday morning, broke into one of the world’s most famous museums. They made off with eight prized pieces of jewellery including a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife.

As they fled, they dropped a 19th-Century diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugenie. Although it was recovered, the crown was damaged, and Laurence des Cars told the senators that it had probably been crushed as the thieves prised it from its display case.

“Initial assessments suggest that a delicate restoration is possible,” des Cars said.

Some of the museum’s problems she raised at the hearing included cuts in surveillance and security staff over the past decade and decaying infrastructure that could not handle the latest generation of video equipment.

The director hopes that work to improve security will begin at the start of 2026.

However, it is expected to be challenging given the aging infrastructure of what was once a royal palace.

Des Cars said she had tendered her resignation to the culture ministry after the heist but had been refused. She told senators she had been raising concerns about the state of the Louvre for some time.

She became animated, even indignant, as she defended herself from media allegations that she prioritised her own comfort ahead of protecting the Louvre and its historic collections.

“I am wounded as chair and director that the warnings I was raising, as a whistle-blower, in a sense, have come to pass last Sunday.

“We’ve had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I’ve taken responsibility for it,” she said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France’s Europe1 radio on Wednesday that he had “every confidence” the thieves would be caught.

Prosecutors have said their theory is that the robbers were under orders for a criminal organisation.