The Louvre thieves evaded police 30 seconds before the end of the investigation, investigation finds | Paris

The thieves who stole the Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in October managed to evade police with just 30 seconds to spare due to an avoidable security failure at the Paris museum, a damning investigation has revealed.

The investigation, ordered by the Ministry of Culture after the embarrassing daylight robbery, revealed that only one of two security cameras was working near the site where the intruders broke into the morning of Sunday, October 19.

The report, details of which were made public in the French Senate’s culture committee, said agents in the security control room did not have enough screens to follow images in real time, while a lack of coordination meant police were initially sent to the wrong place once the alarm was raised.

“This highlights the overall failure of the museum, as well as its supervisory authority, to address security issues,” committee chair Laurent Laffont said at the start of the hearing on Wednesday.

One of the most surprising discoveries is that the thieves only had 30 seconds before police and private security guards arrived at the scene.

“Give or take 30 seconds, Securitas [private security] “Bouncers or police officers in the car could have prevented the thieves from escaping,” inquiry chair Noel Corbyn told senators.

He said measures such as a modern CCTV system, more resistant glass or better internal coordination could have prevented the loss of jewelery worth an estimated €88m (£77m) which has yet to be found.

The key security vulnerabilities have been highlighted in several studies seen by Louvre management over the past decade, including a 2019 review conducted by experts at jewelry company Van Cleef & Arpels. Their findings emphasized that the riverside terrace targeted by the thieves was a weak point and could easily be accessed using an extendable ladder, which is exactly what happened in the robbery.

Corbyn confirmed that the director of the Louvre Museum, Laurence de Carre, was not aware of the audit ordered by her predecessor, Jean-Luc Martinez. “The recommendations that would have enabled us to avoid this theft were not acted upon,” Corbyn said, adding that there was a lack of coordination between government-appointed managers.

Police believe they have arrested the four intruders, who fled on motorcycles after carrying out the robbery at the Apollo Gallery in about 10 minutes in total, according to the investigation.

These revelations are likely to increase pressure on Des Carre, the first woman to hold the position, who was appointed by Emmanuel Macron in 2021. Questions have grown since the break-in about whether this could have been avoided and why the protection of the world’s most visited museum appears to be so poor.

The French House of Representatives is conducting its own investigation, while Senators Des Carre and Martinez are scheduled to be questioned next week. Last month, France’s state auditor said security improvements had been implemented at a “grossly insufficient pace” and that the museum had prioritized “high-profile and attractive operations” rather than protecting itself.

Guy Tubiana, a senior police officer and security adviser at the Ministry of Culture who was involved in the investigation, told senators he was “astonished” by what he discovered at the museum. He said: “There were a series of malfunctions that led to a disaster, but I never thought that the Louvre could suffer so many malfunctions.”

Workers at the Louvre Museum are expected to begin a strike on Monday to demand that management take action against what they see as a staff shortage and overcrowding at the museum, which welcomed 8.7 million people last year.

Over the weekend, the museum revealed that a water leak had destroyed between 300 and 400 magazines, books and documents in the Egyptian section in late November.