Paris Museum Robbery Shines Spotlight on Protection Concerns

Entering the planet's most popular museum in the middle of the day, grabbing eight items of invaluable Napoleonic jewellery and vanishing into Paris traffic on humble scooters may seem like the most audacious of crimes, carried out for international notoriety and ensuing Hollywood film treatments.

Specialists who observe patterns in international art crime, however, see Sunday morning’s robbery at the Louvre as something more prosaic: the latest in a string of quick-hit thefts centered more on the material value of precious stones or metals than the historical importance, perpetuating a trend that has appeared over the last ten years in Europe, Britain and the US. The venue, they propose, would have been of lesser importance to the criminals.

“You may ask why criminals who want to take valuable jewellery are breaking into a globally renowned museum rather than a luxury jewelry store,” stated Christopher A Marinello. “The answer is simple: it’s because nowadays a Cartier store is better protected.”

A series of violent jewellery shop thefts mean that many stores have strengthened their protection in recent years, with armed guards on their premises and merchandise no longer kept on display overnight. Cultural institutions, meanwhile, look more exposed, partly because of the inherent factor of being public-facing institutions in older structures, and partly the current economic climate in many developed nations.

“After the pandemic, governments across the world have cut back on law enforcement and the arts funding,” said Marinello. “If thieves can get into the Louvre, it demonstrates how at risk our institutions have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”

The robbery of the items – featuring necklaces made up of precious stones and hundreds of gems, the crown of a historical figure containing nearly 2,000 diamonds and a extremely expensive diadem once possessed by Napoleon III’s wife that the robbers left by the roadside on their way out – has inevitably drawn comparisons with the historical theft of the Mona Lisa from the same museum, performed by the worker Vincenzo Peruggia.

Better comparisons may be the recent burglary 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 recent robbery of a large gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum or even a spate of robberies of sports memorabilia from American institutions.

“It's a clear trend here,” said Marinello. “Break in, take items, and dismantle them as quickly as possible.”

If the artefacts were to stay whole, specialists say, the thieves would struggle to sell them. “It's impossible to sell something as immediately identifiable as the museum's gems on the licit market”, said an art crime researcher of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

“They would be immediately recognised, particularly given the Ministry of Culture has published photos of the items. Even a private collector or an sales venue would want to see paperwork establishing legal possession before touching such striking pieces.”

In the past, museums were often hesitant to go public about the loss of well-known art pieces and would remain quiet out of embarrassment. These days, as art thefts are more reported on, the storage and sale of stolen art is risky business for any criminal.

“If you steal a famous painting, it has to stay complete or it becomes valueless, and you have to devise a scheme to keep it in hiding, perhaps by passing it around difficult criminal actors,” said Marinello. “And you’re constantly exposed to the risk of an accomplice informing authorities to cash in a reward.”

For comparable factors, an investigator said it was highly improbable that the theft had been ordered. “Stolen to order is something from films,” he said. “No one would handle these items. It's global news and in all the media. If you buy this, if you get caught, you end up in prison. You cannot show it to your friends, you cannot leave it to your family.”

Altering taken items by melting down or reshaping does reduce the value. When it comes to gems, it also comes with considerable risk because contemporary methods give gems a bigger and brighter surface area, and antique-cut stones would either draw unwanted attention or barter the price down for a concealment.

Crucially, however, melting down or reshaping removes the proof of the theft. “I suspect that the Louvre thieves will try to take the stolen goods to locations with diamond expertise like a country, India or even as close as Antwerp, and locate an expert to cut out the gems,” said Marinello.

The heist at the Louvre has already raised questions about protective steps at the museum, with a unauthorized state auditor report expected to be published soon criticising “considerable” and “ongoing” slow progress in updating systems and noting that security cameras were missing in many rooms. But security experts say showing precious items in older structures with a constant flow of visitors comes with risks that are not possible to eliminate completely.

“Older structures are much harder to protect,” said Erin Thompson. “Many of them have nice big street-facing windows that allows for thieves to escape, and there may be preservation laws in place that mean you can’t fit them with proper bulletproof glass.”

The most solid protective measures for structures should be designed “as a stronghold”, said a security advisor. “There should be several layers to repel intruders.”

Contemporary structures are fitted with state-of-the-art surveillance systems or integrated vibration sensors that alert about a broken glass in immediately, but historic institutions may be reluctant to alter their appearance. Laser scanners can be difficult to fit to decorated surfaces. Sensors may also have to be disabled during the day as hordes of visitors stomp through a museum.

The timing of the robbery, which occurred between 9.30am and 9.40am in Paris, was common of recent thefts, Stürmann said. “It's logical why robberies tend to happen at either start or end of day. It’s often when security rotate and prior to the museum is crowded who actually act as extra protection.”

Technological progress may have thrown up new gadgets that can notify more rapidly and effectively, but it has also given robbers new tools with which to circumvent protections. In Paris, the thieves accessed the museum’s upper level with a vehicle-mounted ladder and cut through a glass pane with a electric tool.

Elaine Sciolino said the discussion in France about the 232-year-old structure had primarily focused on crowd control in recent years, and not as much on protection.

The institution has an in-house team of about 50 permanent emergency personnel, but their mission is mainly to protect the collection from blazes and water damage. “There is no quick reaction team,” Sciolino said. “Ultimately, the security of the Louvre all comes down to political will and money, and at present the nation simply has no resources.”