Paris Museum Robbery Shines Spotlight on Security Concerns

Entering the world’s most-visited art institution in the middle of the day, grabbing eight pieces of priceless Napoleonic jewellery and disappearing into the city traffic on simple scooters may seem like the boldest of crimes, carried out for international notoriety and subsequent movie adaptations.

Specialists who study patterns in international art crime, however, see Sunday morning’s heist at the Louvre as a more practical matter: the latest in a series of smash-and-grab thefts focused more on the monetary worth of precious stones or materials than the historical importance, continuing a trend that has emerged over the last decade in Europe, the UK and the US. The location, they propose, would have been of lesser importance to the criminals.

“One might wonder why criminals who want to take expensive jewellery are breaking into a globally renowned museum rather than a luxury jewelry store,” said an expert in art recovery. “It's straightforward: it’s because nowadays a Cartier store is more secure.”

A series of violent retail store thefts indicate that many outlets have strengthened their security in recent years, with armed guards on their locations and wares no longer kept on display overnight. Cultural institutions, on the other hand, look more exposed, in part because of the in-built reason of being public-facing institutions in older structures, and partly the financial situation in many western countries.

“After the pandemic, governments across the globe have cut back on law enforcement and the culture sector,” noted Marinello. “With criminals entering the Louvre, it shows how vulnerable our institutions have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”

The robbery of the objects – featuring jewelry pieces made up of precious stones and 631 diamonds, the crown of Empress Eugénie containing thousands of diamonds and a hugely valuable diadem once possessed by Napoleon III’s wife that the robbers dropped by the roadside on their way out – has inevitably drawn comparisons with the historical theft of the famous painting from the Louvre, performed by the worker the thief.

More relevant points of reference may be the recent theft of valuables from Dresden’s Green Vault Museum worth over millions, the theft of a multi-million pound gold toilet from Blenheim Palace the same year, the 2017 robbery of a valuable item from Berlin’s Bode Museum or even a spate of thefts of collector items from US mining museums.

“It's a clear trend here,” said Marinello. “Smash, grab, and melt it down as quickly as possible.”

If the artefacts were to stay whole, specialists say, the thieves would struggle to find a buyer. “There’s no way to sell something as recognizable as the museum's gems on the legal marketplace”, commented an art crime researcher of the a relevant organization.

“They would be immediately recognised, particularly given the cultural authorities has released images of the pieces. Even a private collector or an auction house would want to see documentation confirming legal possession before touching such striking pieces.”

In the previous years, institutions were often reluctant to announce publicly about the disappearance of well-known works of art and would remain quiet out of embarrassment. Now, as cultural robberies are more reported on, the keeping and sale of taken items is risky business for any criminal.

“Taking a Picasso, it has to stay complete or it becomes worthless, and you have to conceive of a scheme to keep it in hiding, perhaps by moving it among dangerous individuals,” noted Marinello. “And you’re constantly exposed to the danger of an partner telling the police to collect a reward.”

For comparable factors, an investigator said it was vanishingly unlikely that the theft had been commissioned. “Stolen to order is something from films,” he said. “Nobody would touch this. It’s all around the world and in all the media. If you acquire these, if you get caught, you go to jail. You can't display it to your friends, you cannot bequeath it to your children.”

Altering taken items by dismantling or re-cutting does lower the worth. When it comes to gems, it also comes with significant danger because modern cutting techniques give stones a larger and lighter surface area, and older-style stones would either draw unwanted attention or barter the price down for a coverup.

Importantly, however, dismantling or re-cutting eliminates the evidence of the theft. “My guess is that the robbers will try to take the items to locations with diamond expertise like Israel, another nation or even as nearby as Antwerp, and find someone to cut out the gems,” said Marinello.

The robbery at the Louvre has already raised questions about security measures at the institution, with a leaked state auditor report expected to be released next month pointing out “considerable” and “ongoing” slow progress in modernizing systems and observing that security cameras were missing in multiple areas. But specialists say showing precious items in historic buildings with a steady stream of visitors comes with risks that are not possible to eliminate completely.

“Older structures are much harder to secure,” said Erin Thompson. “They often have nice big street-facing windows that makes it easy for criminals to get away, and there may be building protection statutes in place that mean you are unable to install them with secure windows.”

The best protective measures for structures should be conceptualised “like a fortress”, noted Peter Stürmann. “It should include several layers to deter intruders.”

Contemporary structures are fitted with advanced surveillance systems or integrated seismic detectors that alert about a smashed window in immediately, but historic institutions may be hesitant to alter their appearance. Laser scanners can be hard to install to stuccoed ceilings. Sensors may also have to be turned off during the day as hordes of visitors stomp through a museum.

The schedule of the robbery, which took place between 9.30am and 9.40am local time, was common of modern robberies, Stürmann said. “There’s a good reason why robberies tend to happen at either start or end of day. Frequently when guards rotate and before the museum is full of visitors who actually act as extra protection.”

Technological progress may have thrown up new gadgets that can raise the alarm more rapidly and effectively, but it has also provided robbers new tools with which to circumvent protections. In the city, the thieves reached the museum’s upper level with a vehicle-mounted ladder and breached a window with a electric tool.

An author said the discussion in France about the historic building had mostly centered on visitor management in the past decade, and not as much on protection.

The institution has an in-house team of about fifty full-time emergency personnel, but their mission is mostly to safeguard the collection from fires and water damage. “There isn't a quick reaction team,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the security of the Louvre all depends on political will and funding, and at present France simply has no resources.”