No camera covered Louvre wall where jewel thieves broke in, director says

The Louvre failed to spot a gang of thieves early enough to stop the theft of €88m (£76m) worth of French crown jewels, the museum's director has revealed.

Laurence des Cars, speaking publicly for the first time since the heist on Sunday, told French senators that CCTV around the Louvre's perimeter was weak and "aging".

The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said.

"We failed these jewels," she said, adding that no-one was protected from "brutal criminals - not even the Louvre".

A hunt is still under way for the gang of four who, over the space of less than 10 minutes last Sunday morning, broke into one of the world's most famous museums. They made off with eight prized pieces of jewellery including a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife.

As they fled, they dropped a 19th-Century diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugenie. Although it was recovered, the crown was damaged, and Laurence des Cars told the senators that it had probably been crushed as the thieves prised it from its display case.

"Initial assessments suggest that a delicate restoration is possible," she said.

The thieves used a truck fitted with a mechanical ladder to reach the first floor gallery at 09:30 (07:30 GMT), half an hour after the Louvre opened its doors for the day.

Des Cars praised the security guards who she said acted quickly to evacuate the building as soon as they were aware there had been an intrusion into the Gallery of Apollo.

But she conceded: "We did not spot the arrival of the thieves early enough... the weakness of our perimeter protection is known."

The museum re-opened on Wednesday, although the gallery remained shut.

The Louvre is home to priceless works of art including Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Laurence des Cars, who became director of the Louvre in 2021, said she wanted to double the number of CCTV cameras at the museum.

She said she was warned about how "obsolete" the equipment at the Louvre was when she took the job, in contrast to the modern equipment of the Musée d'Orsay, where she had worked previously.

Some of the museum's problems she raised included cuts in surveillance and security staff over the past decade and decaying infrastructure that could not handle the latest generation of video equipment.

The director hopes that work to improve security will begin at the start of 2026.

However, it is expected to be challenging given the aging infrastructure of what was once a royal palace.

Des Cars said she had tendered her resignation to the culture ministry after the heist but had been refused. She told senators she had been raising concerns about the state of the Louvre for some time.

"I am wounded as chair and director that the warnings I was raising, as a whistle-blower, in a sense, have come to pass last Sunday.

"We've had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I've taken responsibility for it," she said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France's Europe1 radio on Wednesday that he had "every confidence" the thieves would be caught.

Prosecutors have said their theory is that the robbers were under orders for a criminal organisation.