🔗 Share this article

Breaking into the planet's most popular art institution in broad daylight, grabbing eight items of invaluable historical gems and vanishing into Paris traffic on humble scooters may seem like the boldest of crimes, executed for international notoriety and subsequent Hollywood film treatments.

Experts who study patterns in global cultural theft, however, see the recent robbery at the Louvre as a more practical matter: the most recent in a series of quick-hit thefts centered more on the material value of precious stones or metals than the historical importance, perpetuating a trend that has emerged over the last decade in Germany, the UK and the US. The location, they propose, would have been of lesser importance to the criminals.

“You may ask why thieves who want to take valuable jewellery are entering a world-famous museum rather than a luxury jewelry store,” stated an expert in art recovery. “The answer is simple: it’s because these days a Cartier store is better protected.”

A series of aggressive retail store thefts mean that many stores have beefed up their security in the past few years, with security personnel on their locations and wares no longer shown overnight. Cultural institutions, on the other hand, look vulnerable, partly because of the inherent reason of being accessible institutions in historic buildings, and also the financial situation in many developed nations.

“Since Covid, governments across the world have reduced spending on law enforcement and the culture sector,” said Marinello. “With criminals entering the Louvre, it demonstrates how at risk our institutions have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”

The robbery of the objects – featuring necklaces made up of eight sapphires and hundreds of gems, the crown of Empress Eugénie featuring thousands of diamonds and a hugely valuable crown once possessed by a royal that the thieves dropped by the roadside on their way out – has naturally drawn comparisons with the historical theft of the famous painting from the Louvre, performed by the Italian handyman the thief.

More relevant points of reference may be the 2019 burglary of valuables from Dresden’s Green Vault Museum worth over €113m, the theft of a multi-million pound gold toilet from Blenheim Palace the same year, the recent heist of a valuable item from Berlin’s Bode Museum or even a spate of robberies of collector items from US mining museums.

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

If the items were to stay whole, specialists say, the criminals would struggle to sell them. “There’s no way to trade something as immediately identifiable as the museum's gems on the licit market”, commented an art crime researcher of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

“They are too well-known, particularly given the Ministry of Culture has released images of the items. Even a individual buyer or an sales venue would want to see paperwork establishing proper ownership before handling such striking pieces.”

In the past, institutions were often hesitant to announce publicly about the disappearance of well-known works of art and would remain quiet out of shame. These days, as cultural robberies 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 worthless, and you have to conceive of a plan to conceal it, perhaps by moving it among dangerous individuals,” noted Marinello. “There's ongoing risk to the risk of an accomplice telling the police to collect a ransom.”

For comparable factors, an art detective said it was highly improbable that the robbery had been commissioned. “Stolen to order is something from Hollywood movies,” he said. “No one would handle these items. It’s all around the world and in all the media. If you buy this, if you get caught, you go to jail. You cannot show it to your friends, you cannot leave it to your children.”

Modifying taken items by dismantling or reshaping does lower the worth. When it comes to diamonds, it also comes with considerable risk because modern cutting techniques give gems a bigger and brighter appearance, and older-style stones would either draw unwanted attention or reduce value for a concealment.

Importantly, however, melting down or reshaping eliminates the proof of the theft. “My guess is that the Louvre thieves will try to bring the stolen goods to locations with gem knowledge like Israel, another nation or even as nearby as a city, and find someone to cut out the gems,” said Marinello.

The robbery at the Louvre has already brought up concerns about security measures at the museum, with a unauthorized state auditor report expected to be published soon pointing out “considerable” and “persistent” slow progress in updating equipment and observing that security cameras were missing in multiple areas. But security experts say showing valuable objects in older structures with a steady stream of visitors comes with dangers that are not possible to eliminate completely.

“Older structures are much harder to protect,” said an art crime professor. “Many of them have large accessible windows that makes it easy for thieves to escape, and there may be building protection statutes in place that mean you are unable to install them with secure windows.”

The best security systems for structures should be designed “as a stronghold”, noted a security advisor. “It should include several layers to repel intruders.”

Contemporary structures are equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance systems or integrated seismic detectors that alert about a broken glass in real time, but historic institutions may be reluctant to alter their appearance. Detection devices can be difficult to install to decorated surfaces. Motion and sound detectors may also have to be turned off during the daytime as crowds walk through a museum.

The timing of the Louvre raid, which occurred between morning hours local time, was typical of modern robberies, Stürmann said. “There’s a good reason why thefts tend to happen at either start or end of day. Frequently when security change their shifts and prior to the museum is crowded who actually act as additional security staff.”

Technological progress may have thrown up new gadgets that can raise the alarm more quickly and efficiently, but it has also given robbers new methods with which to bypass protections. In Paris, the robbers accessed the museum’s first-floor window with a mobile equipment and breached a window with a electric tool.

An author said the conversation in the country about the historic building had mostly focused on crowd control in the past decade, and less on security.

The museum has an in-house brigade of about 50 permanent firefighters, but their purpose is mostly to safeguard the collection from fires and flooding. “There isn't a rapid-response unit,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the safety of the Louvre all depends on government support and money, and at present the nation simply has no resources.”