France's Louvre Museum reopened to visitors on Wednesday, three days after closing due to a shocking 7-minute daylight heist.
From 9.00 am (local time), the museum’s regular opening time, visitors began entering the renowned institution, though the Apollo Gallery, where the theft took place on Sunday, remains closed, as cited by AFP.
Louvre Director Laurence des Cars is scheduled to appear before a French Senate cultural committee later on Wednesday to address concerns over security at the world’s most visited museum.
Des Cars, who has led the Louvre since 2021, has not issued any public statement since the daylight theft of royal jewellery on Sunday.
A report by France’s Court of Auditors , obtained by AFP and covering the period from 2019 to 2024, highlighted ongoing delays in security upgrades at the Louvre, noting that only one-fourth of a single wing is equipped with video surveillance.
In January, Des Cars had warned culture minister Rachida Dati about the “worrying level of obsolescence” at the museum and stressed the urgent need for significant renovations.
The robbery was carried out by four thieves who used a vehicle-mounted extendable ladder to access the south side of the Louvre around 9.30 am (local time), just half an hour after the museum opened. Two of them used an angle grinder and other power tools to break into the Apollo Gallery, which houses France’s historic crown jewels.
The group smashed glass display cases and stole the jewellery in what appeared to be a carefully planned operation.
The thieves escaped with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace gifted by Napoleon I to Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem once owned by Empress Eugénie, adorned with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
Responding to criticism that the display cases were insufficiently secure, the museum said on Tuesday that the cases were installed in 2019 and “represented a significant improvement in security standards,” as reported by France 24 .
Just last month, thieves broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum and stole gold nuggets valued at more than $1.5 million.
In a separate incident, two dishes and a vase worth an estimated $7.6 million were stolen from a museum in the central city of Limoges.
From 9.00 am (local time), the museum’s regular opening time, visitors began entering the renowned institution, though the Apollo Gallery, where the theft took place on Sunday, remains closed, as cited by AFP.
Louvre Director Laurence des Cars is scheduled to appear before a French Senate cultural committee later on Wednesday to address concerns over security at the world’s most visited museum.
Des Cars, who has led the Louvre since 2021, has not issued any public statement since the daylight theft of royal jewellery on Sunday.
A report by France’s Court of Auditors , obtained by AFP and covering the period from 2019 to 2024, highlighted ongoing delays in security upgrades at the Louvre, noting that only one-fourth of a single wing is equipped with video surveillance.
In January, Des Cars had warned culture minister Rachida Dati about the “worrying level of obsolescence” at the museum and stressed the urgent need for significant renovations.
The robbery was carried out by four thieves who used a vehicle-mounted extendable ladder to access the south side of the Louvre around 9.30 am (local time), just half an hour after the museum opened. Two of them used an angle grinder and other power tools to break into the Apollo Gallery, which houses France’s historic crown jewels.
The group smashed glass display cases and stole the jewellery in what appeared to be a carefully planned operation.
The thieves escaped with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace gifted by Napoleon I to Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem once owned by Empress Eugénie, adorned with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
Responding to criticism that the display cases were insufficiently secure, the museum said on Tuesday that the cases were installed in 2019 and “represented a significant improvement in security standards,” as reported by France 24 .
Just last month, thieves broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum and stole gold nuggets valued at more than $1.5 million.
In a separate incident, two dishes and a vase worth an estimated $7.6 million were stolen from a museum in the central city of Limoges.
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