PARIS (AP) — Paris police acknowledged major security holes at the Louvre on Wednesday, turning this month's stunning daylight theft into a nationwide assessment of how France protects its treasures.
Paris police chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that outdated systems and slow renovations have left weak seams at the world's most visited museum.
“The technological step hasn't been taken,” he told lawmakers, noting that some parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower quality images that are slowly transmitted in real time.
The long-promised overhaul – a $93 million project requiring about 60 kilometers (37 miles) of new cables – “will not be completed until 2029-2030,” he said.
Faure also said the Louvre's permit to use security cameras expired in July and was not renewed – a paperwork error seen by some as a symbol of wider negligence after thieves broke open a window in the Apollo Gallery, cut open boxes with power tools and made off with eight of the French Crown Jewels within minutes while tourists were inside.
“Officers arrived very quickly,” Fore said, but added that the delay occurred earlier in the chain – from the first sighting through museum security, the emergency line and police command.
Faure and his team said the first police alert came not from the Louvre's alarm system, but from a cyclist on the street who dialed the emergency number after seeing people wearing helmets with a basket lift.
The period of detention of suspects expires
Officials say two suspects were arrested over the weekend, including one who stopped at Charles de Gaulle airport as he tried to leave France. According to French rules for organized theft, detention can last up to 96 hours; that deadline expires late Wednesday, when prosecutors must charge the suspects, release them or seek an extension of the judge's term. The Louvre values the eight stolen works at approximately $102 million. None of them have been confirmed recovered.
The theft also exposed an insurance blind spot: Officials say the jewelry was not privately insured. The French state is self-insuring its national museums because premiums for covering priceless heritage are astronomically high, meaning the Louvre will not receive any compensation for the damage. The financial blow, like the cultural wound, is total.
Faure refused to make quick decisions. He rejected calls to create a permanent police post inside the palace museum, warning it would set an unworkable precedent and do little to combat fast and mobile brigades. “I am completely against it,” he said. “The problem is not the guard at the door, but speeding up the notification chain.”
He called on lawmakers to allow the use of tools that are currently banned: artificial intelligence-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and track scooters or equipment through city cameras in real time.
The October 19 robbery was quick and simple. In the morning rush, the thieves reached the jewelry gallery near the windows facing the street, broke through reinforced drawers and disappeared in a matter of minutes. Former bank robber David Desclos told the AP that the operation was routine and there were obvious vulnerabilities in the gallery's layout.
Museum and culture officials are under pressure
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, remained defensive, refusing to resign the Louvre director and insisting that the alarm had gone off while acknowledging that “security gaps do exist.” She kept details to a minimum, citing the ongoing investigation.
The reckoning at the museum is already under tension. In June, the Louvre called a spontaneous strike by staff, including security personnel, due to uncontrolled crowds, chronic staffing shortages and “unbearable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction create “blind spots”, a vulnerability highlighted by thieves who rolled a basket lift up to the Seine-facing façade and into the hall where the crown jewels are displayed.
Fore said police will now monitor the timing of surveillance permits at various establishments to prevent a repeat of the July violations. But he stressed that the larger solution is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace remains open, and updating the law so police can respond to suspicious traffic in real time – before the scooter disappears into Parisian traffic and the diamonds become history.
For Desclos, the practical answer is an unsentimental one: keep the originals and display perfect copies. Romance aside, he argues, the point is that real objects survive.
Experts fear the stolen items may already have been dismantled and the stones recycled to erase their past – a prospect that adds urgency to the debate in France over how it guards what the world sees.
