Jewels stolen from Louvre have estimated value of $102 million, not including historical value, prosecutor says

Crown jewels that were stolen on a dramatic weekend heist in the Louvre are worth an estimated 88 million euros, or $102 million, not including their historical value to France, the Paris prosecutor said Tuesday.

About 100 investigators are now involved in the police search for the gems and robbery suspectssaid prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is leading the investigation.

“The criminals who took these jewels will not earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of ​​dismantling them,” he stated in an interview with the RTL radio station. “Perhaps we can hope that they will think about this and not destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”

Questions have been raised about security at the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, and whether security cameras could have failed when thieves rode a basket lift to the Louvre’s façade, crashed through a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels on Sunday morning.

But France’s Culture Minister said Tuesday that the security apparatus installed at the Louvre functioned correctly during the robbery.

“The security apparatus of the Louvre museum did not fail, that is a fact,” Minister Rachida Dati told lawmakers in the National Assembly. “The Louvre museum’s security apparatus worked.”

Dati said he initiated an administrative investigation that is in addition to a police investigation to guarantee full transparency of what happened. He did not offer details on how the robbers managed to carry out the robbery given that the cameras were working. But he described it as a painful blow to the nation.

He heist It was “a wound for all of us,” he said. “Why? Because the Louvre is much more than the largest museum in the world. It is a showcase of our French culture and our shared heritage.”

Interior Minister Laurent Núñez said Monday that the museum’s alarm went off when the Apolo Gallery window was forced open.

Police officers arrived at the scene two or three minutes after being called by an individual who witnessed the scene, he told LCI television. Authorities said the robbery lasted less than eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre.

Núñez did not reveal details about video surveillance cameras that may have filmed the thieves around and inside the museum, pending a police investigation. “There are cameras all over the Louvre,” he said.

The robbery targeted the Golden Apollo Gallery, where the crown diamonds are displayed. According to officials, eight items were taken: a sapphire diadem, a necklace and a unique earring from a set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortensia; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte; a locket brooch; and Empress Eugenie’s diadem and her large bow brooch, a prized imperial ensemble from the 19th century.

Alain Bauer, a professor of criminology at France’s National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, told News themezone that the thieves left a large amount of DNA at the scene, including Empress Eugenie’s crown, which the thieves left behind as they fled on motorcycles.

“We’ll catch them,” he said of the thieves. But he added: “I don’t think we can capture the jewels.”

The crown jewels are priceless in historical terms, but experts have told News themezone that they would still be worth millions of dollars if they were broken up and sold on the black market.

the jewels were not privately insuredstated the French Ministry of Culture in a statement to the newspaper Le Parisien. French law prohibits entities like the Louvre from insuring its property, except when part of a collection is moved or loaned to another institution, Romain Déchelette, president of Serex Assurances, a France-based fine arts insurer, told News themezone.

In:

• The Louvre