PARIS — Studded with diamonds and emeralds crown of Empress Eugenie, which was found damaged near the Louvre after apparently being dropped during robbery on October 19, will be restored as a symbol of the “Renaissance,” museum director Laurence de Carse said Friday.
The thieves dealt with eight objects on display in the Paris Museum, including a sapphire tiara, necklace and one earring from a set associated with the 19th-century Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense. They made their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery using a freight elevator, using rotary cutters to cut through display cases and steal the jewelry.
Only the imperial crown of Empress Eugenie with more than 1,300 diamonds was discovered on the day of the robbery near the museum.
Des Cars said the crown was most likely damaged when it was removed from the display case through a “small cut” made by a rotary cutter, rather than when it fell to the ground.
“All the most important jewelry, the diamonds and emeralds, are actually still there,” she told news broadcaster France Info. “A few small diamonds are missing, but that's all,” she said, adding that “one of the eight gold eagles on the crown is missing.”
Des Cars has confirmed that the crown will be restored with funding from backers who have already offered their support.
“We are going to create a scientific committee to oversee the restoration, and this will be a wonderful symbol of the rebirth of the Louvre,” she said.
Cars offered to resign on the day of the robbery, which the Minister of Culture refused.
“I saw the tragic, cruel and cruel reality of the Louvre, and as the person in charge, after all the hard work done by the teams that day, I felt it was right to resign,” she said.
De Cars said she pushed for modernization of the museum shortly after she was appointed its head in 2021. The problems she listed included “the obsolescence of our technical facilities, the dilapidation of the building, structural problems related to the reception of visitors and overcrowding of the pyramid, which was designed for four million visitors but now receives nine million, as well as the problem with the Mona Lisa exhibition, which is very unsatisfactory.”
Her comments came a day after the French Court of Auditors called on the Louvre accelerate security modernization plans as a priority. The report, covering the period 2018-2024 and prepared before the heist, said the museum's investments were prioritizing “visible and engaging operations” such as purchasing new works of art and improving the visitor experience over security.
De Cars rejected the criticism, saying the Louvre was tasked with carrying out all missions simultaneously.
The ten-year plan for the “New Renaissance of the Louvre”, which includes security improvements, was launched earlier this year. It is estimated that modernizing the museum's infrastructure, reducing crowding and providing famous Mona Lisa special gallery by 2031.
