The China Mail - Paris Louvre heist lays bare museum security complaints

How could robbers with power tools break in and steal crowns and sapphire and emerald necklaces? And how can a museum spanning 73,000 square metres and housing around 35,000 works of art be secured?

The government said authorities had already begun reviewing security at the vast Paris venue before the heist. Labour unions there have complained that security staff positions there have been cut.

Here are some of the issues raised by Sunday's drama:

- Security warning decades ago -

The Louvre's then director Pierre Rosenberg warned that the museum's security was "fragile", after a painting by French master Camille Corot was stolen in broad daylight in 1998.

Taking over in 2021, its current director Laurence des Cars asked the Paris police to conduct a security audit of the museum.

Following this audit, recommendations were made "a few weeks, a few months ago", said Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Sunday after the raid.

They "are beginning to be implemented," she said, without elaborating.

Contacted by AFP, the Louvre did not comment.

The culture ministry said in a statement that alarms linked to the windows of the Apollo Gallery went off when the thieves penetrated them in a "particularly fast and brutal break-in".

It said five museum guards present in the gallery and nearby spaces "immediately intervened to implement security protocol", prompting the thieves to flee. No one was hurt, it said.

- Security staff cuts -

Labour unions said the museum's security had been undermined by staff reductions in recent years, even as museum attendance has soared.

One union source, who asked not to be named, said the equivalent of 200 full-time posts had been cut at the museum over the past 15 years, out of a total workforce of nearly 2,000.

"We cannot do without physical surveillance," the source said.

The SUD union in a statement on Sunday complained of "the destruction of security jobs" at the Louvre.

In mid-June, museum staff staged a brief walkout to protest "understaffing" issues they said prevented them from carrying out their duties.

"This robbery comes a few months after museum employees warned about security flaws," said a deputy mayor of Paris, David Belliard of the Green party.

"Why were they ignored by the museum management and the ministry?" he wrote on X.

- Hundreds of millions for revamp -

In response to warnings about the state of the Louvre, France's President Emmanuel Macron this year announced a colossal renovation project, estimated to cost up to $930 million.

It plans to install a new entrance to relieve congestion at the museum's landmark glass pyramid by 2031, and an exhibition hall dedicated to the Mona Lisa.

Dati said on Sunday the renovation project featured a new "security master plan".

The culture ministry said Sunday that security measures would be "improved with new-generation cameras deployed".

The union source interviewed by AFP hoped that the amount spent "will be up to the protection required by our establishment".

- Mutiple museum thefts -

The Louvre was just the latest French museum to be targeted. Just last month thieves broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris at night and stole six kilos of gold nuggets.

"Museums are increasingly targeted for the valuable works they hold," the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) told AFP earlier this month.

Gold objects "are particularly exposed, especially since the security of a museum does not equal that of a bank".

According to the office's figures, museum burglaries peaked at 31 in 2015, with nine recorded in 2023 and 21 in 2024. There are 1,200 venues designated as national museums in France.

- 'Unsellable' treasures -

Authorities and the art world speculated on Sunday about who the suspects were and where the stolen Louvre jewels may be headed.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on the radio that "a seasoned team" of thieves was suspected to be behind it, one that had "already committed other deeds of this nature".

The president of the leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine, Alexandre Giquello, said Sunday he found it "hard to believe" the Louvre jewels were stolen to order, judging the famous treasures "totally unsellable in their current state".

"In this operation, the most complicated part is not the theft, but the fencing," he told television channel LCI.

T.Wu--ThChM