Louvre Robbery Puts Spotlight on Protection Issues

Breaking into the world’s most-visited art institution in the middle of the day, grabbing eight items of invaluable historical gems and vanishing into Paris traffic on simple scooters may seem like the boldest of crimes, executed for global fame and ensuing movie adaptations.

Specialists who study trends in international art crime, however, see the recent robbery at the Louvre as a more practical matter: the latest in a series of quick-hit thefts focused more on the monetary worth of valuable gems or materials than the artifacts’ significance, perpetuating a trend that has emerged over the last decade in Germany, Britain and the US. The location, they propose, would have been of secondary concern to the thieves.

“One might wonder why thieves who want to steal expensive jewellery are entering a world-famous museum rather than a Cartier store,” said Christopher A Marinello. “It's straightforward: it’s because these days a high-end boutique is better protected.”

A spate of violent retail store thefts mean that many outlets have strengthened their security in the past few years, with armed guards on their premises and wares no longer shown overnight. Museums, on the other hand, look more exposed, partly because of the inherent factor of being public-facing institutions in older structures, and partly the financial situation in many developed nations.

“Since Covid, authorities across the globe have cut back on police and the arts funding,” noted Marinello. “With criminals entering the Louvre, it shows how vulnerable our museums have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”

The robbery of the items – featuring necklaces made up of eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, the tiara of a historical figure featuring nearly 2,000 diamonds and a extremely expensive diadem once possessed by a royal that the robbers left by the street on their way out – has naturally been compared with the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the same museum, performed by the worker the thief.

Better points of reference may be the 2019 theft of jewellery 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 2017 heist of a valuable item from a European museum or even a spate of robberies of collector items from US mining museums.

“There’s a simple pattern here,” said Marinello. “Smash, grab, and melt it down as quickly as possible.”

If the items were to stay whole, experts say, the thieves would struggle to find a buyer. “There’s no way to sell something as immediately identifiable as the museum's gems on the legal marketplace”, commented an art crime researcher of the a relevant organization.

“They would be immediately recognised, especially given the Ministry of Culture has released images of the items. Even a private collector or an sales venue would want to see paperwork confirming legal possession before touching such striking pieces.”

In the past, institutions were often reluctant to announce publicly about the loss of famous works of art and would remain quiet out of embarrassment. These days, as cultural robberies are more reported on, the keeping and selling of stolen art is risky business for any lawbreaker.

“Taking a famous painting, it has to stay complete or it becomes valueless, and you have to devise a scheme to conceal it, perhaps by moving it among dangerous individuals,” said Marinello. “There's ongoing risk to the risk of an accomplice telling the police 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 films,” he said. “No one would handle these items. It's global news and in all the newspapers. If you buy this, if you get caught, you end up in prison. You cannot show it to your friends, you cannot bequeath it to your family.”

Altering stolen works by melting down or re-cutting does lower the worth. When it comes to gems, it also comes with considerable risk because modern cutting techniques give gems a larger and lighter appearance, and antique-cut stones would either draw unwanted attention or barter the price down for a concealment.

Importantly, however, dismantling or re-cutting eliminates the evidence of the crime. “I suspect that the robbers will try to bring the stolen goods to places with gem knowledge like a country, another nation or even as nearby as a city, and locate an expert to cut out the stones,” said Marinello.

The robbery at the Louvre has already raised questions about security measures at the museum, with a unauthorized official review expected to be published soon pointing out “significant” and “persistent” slow progress in modernizing systems and noting that surveillance were lacking in multiple areas. But security experts say displaying precious items in historic buildings with a constant flow of guests comes with risks that are not possible to remove entirely.

“Older structures are more difficult to protect,” explained Erin Thompson. “They often have large accessible windows that makes it easy for thieves to escape, and there may be building protection statutes in place that mean you are unable to install them with secure windows.”

The most solid security systems for structures should be designed “as a stronghold”, noted Peter Stürmann. “There should be multiple levels to deter attackers.”

Modern buildings are fitted with state-of-the-art external CCTV cameras or in-built seismic detectors that raise alarm about a smashed window in immediately, but old museums may be hesitant to uglify their exteriors. Detection devices can be difficult to install to decorated surfaces. Sensors may also have to be turned off during the day as crowds stomp through a museum.

The schedule of the robbery, which took place between morning hours local time, was typical of recent thefts, Stürmann said. “There’s a good reason why thefts tend to happen at either start or end of day. It’s often when security change their shifts and before the museum is crowded who actually act as extra protection.”

Advances in technology may have thrown up new devices that can raise the alarm more quickly and effectively, but it has also provided robbers new tools with which to bypass protections. In Paris, the robbers accessed the museum’s upper level with a vehicle-mounted ladder and cut through a glass pane with a electric tool.

Elaine Sciolino said the conversation in France about the historic building had mostly centered on visitor management in recent years, and not as much on security.

The institution has an on-site team of about fifty full-time firefighters, but their mission is mostly to safeguard the artworks from blazes and flooding. “There is no quick reaction team,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the safety of the Louvre all comes down to political will and money, and currently France simply has no resources.”