Prosecutor has ‘little hope’ of recovering Louvre jewels thanks to equipment left by thieves | France

French investigators are analyzing more than 150 samples of DNA, fingerprints and other traces of tools and safety equipment left behind by thieves who broke into the Louvre and made off with the Crown Jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

Five days after the daring theft from the world’s most visited museum, Paris prosecutor Laure Picot said she had “a little hope” that the jewels could be recovered, and was “optimistic” about the outcome of the investigation.

She expected that “in the next few days, the results may provide us with leads, especially if the perpetrators have criminal records,” she told the Ouest-France newspaper.

The group of four pulled up outside the Louvre at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, shortly after it opened, in a stolen furniture van equipped with a 30-meter (90-foot) ladder and elevator, two of which were installed in the first-floor Apollo gallery, which houses the remaining French crown jewels.

Wearing high-visibility jackets resembling construction workers, they smashed an unsecured window and then used disc cutters to open two display cases in the ornate gallery before descending on a bucket lift and escaping on the back of motorbikes driven by the other two members of the gang.

However, the thieves failed in their hasty attempt to set the truck on fire, and also left behind a helmet, angle grinders, disc cutters, a high-precision jacket and several other items, Pekwao said, all of which were analyzed in Paris and nearby crime laboratories.

She added that careful analysis of video footage captured by public and private surveillance cameras, including on highways, helped investigators trace the gang’s route “in Paris and its surrounding areas,” but she refused to provide further details.

More than 100 investigators are working on this case, including officers from the French BRB organized crime squad and specialists in trafficked works of art and cultural goods. Picot said investigators were “exploring all hypotheses,” including the possibility that the thieves had help from inside the Louvre.

She said the robbery bore “all the signs of organization: careful preparation, the audacity of the method of operation, the type of jewelry targeted, and escape.”

The whole operation took less than seven minutes, with the two thieves who entered the gallery spending 3 minutes and 58 seconds inside. While they dropped a diamond and emerald tiara during their escape, they made off with a total of eight gem-encrusted pieces from the 19th century.

These included an emerald and diamond necklace given by Napoleon I to his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diadem studded with 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds that had belonged to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.

It turns out that a very similar heist was depicted in one of the 52 volumes of the popular children’s book series that began in the 1960s and stars Phantomette, a crime-fighting girl of about 12 who is often described as France’s first female superhero.

In Appelez Fantômette (Call Fantômette), one character describes exactly how he would break into the Louvre, steal the diamond, and escape, all in a matter of minutes and without hurting anyone.

“Listen to me,” says the figure speaking in his cell. “All you have to do is put a ladder on the wall and go up to the first floor; in fact, there’s only one floor. Then you break the window.

“You walked 10 metres, smashed the display case with a hammer and a bingo! You got your hands on me object. Oh, if I weren’t detained here, I can assure you it would be done in a heartbeat.’

Amid experts’ concerns that the jewelery seized in Sunday’s dramatic robbery was too unrecognizable to be sold in its current condition and may have been stolen to be broken down into gemstones and molten metal, Pekwao stressed that time is of the essence.

She said that with global media attention focused on the theft, there was little hope that “the thieves wouldn’t really dare move too far.” [and] “We can recover the jewelry if we can move fast enough.”

Le Parisien newspaper, citing the museum’s surveillance camera footage, said that the thieves were initially unable to open the display cabinets in the Apollo Gallery, but they were eventually able to smash small holes in the glass and pull out the jewelry.

The newspaper said that the museum’s internal alarm systems were working normally, as the first alarm went off at 9:34 a.m. when the thieves smashed the balcony window overlooking the François Mitterrand pier. She added that the footage shows two attendees arriving at the exhibition and then retreating afterward, perhaps fearing that the thieves were armed.

Louvre director Laurence de Carre on Wednesday admitted there had been a “catastrophic failure” of security, admitting there was “extremely inadequate” security camera coverage of the exterior walls of the world’s largest museum.

Des Cars told French senators that security cameras did not adequately cover the entry point of the thieves. She said: “The only camera installed there is facing west, so it did not cover the balcony where the break-in occurred.” She added that in general, although there are “some perimeter cameras,” they have become “outdated.”

However, the museum director defended the museum’s ongoing €80m (£70m) security programme, saying security camera coverage had been increased across the entire 37-hectare site, including “video surveillance covering all facades”.