Breaking into the planet's most popular museum in the middle of the day, taking eight items of invaluable historical gems and disappearing into Paris traffic on humble scooters may seem like the most audacious of crimes, executed for global fame and subsequent movie adaptations.
Specialists who study trends in global cultural theft, however, see Sunday morning’s robbery at the Louvre as a more practical matter: the latest in a series of smash-and-grab thefts focused more on the material value of valuable gems or metals than the artifacts’ significance, continuing a trend that has emerged over the last ten years in Germany, Britain and the US. The venue, they propose, would have been of lesser importance to the thieves.
“One might wonder why criminals who want to steal expensive jewellery are entering a globally renowned museum rather than a luxury jewelry store,” said an expert in art recovery. “The answer is simple: it’s because nowadays a high-end boutique is more secure.”
A spate of aggressive retail store thefts mean that many stores have beefed up their security in the past few years, with armed guards on their locations and merchandise no longer shown overnight. Cultural institutions, meanwhile, look vulnerable, in part because of the in-built factor of being public-facing institutions in historic buildings, and partly the financial situation in many developed nations.
“Since Covid, governments across the globe have reduced spending on police and the arts funding,” noted Marinello. “With criminals entering the Louvre, it shows how vulnerable our museums have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”
The theft of the objects – including necklaces made up of precious stones and 631 diamonds, the tiara of a historical figure containing nearly 2,000 diamonds and a hugely valuable crown once possessed by Napoleon III’s wife that the thieves dropped by the street on their way out – has inevitably been compared with the 1911 theft of the famous painting from the same museum, performed by the worker the thief.
More relevant points of reference may be the 2019 burglary of valuables from a German institution worth over €113m, the taking of a £4.75m gold toilet from a UK landmark the that year, the recent robbery of a large gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum or even a series 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 items were to stay whole, specialists say, the criminals would find it hard to sell them. “It's impossible to trade something as recognizable as the museum's gems on the legal marketplace”, commented Lynda Albertson of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.
“They are too well-known, especially given the Ministry of Culture has published photos of the items. Even a private collector or an sales venue would want to see documentation establishing legal possession before handling such remarkable pieces.”
In the past, institutions were often hesitant to go public about the disappearance of well-known works of art and would stay silent out of embarrassment. These days, as art thefts are more reported on, the storage and selling 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 conceive of a plan to keep it in hiding, maybe by moving it among dangerous individuals,” said Marinello. “And you’re constantly exposed to the risk of an accomplice telling the police to collect a reward.”
For comparable factors, an investigator said it was highly improbable that the theft had been ordered. “Stolen to order is something from Hollywood movies,” he said. “Nobody would touch this. It’s all around the world and in all the media. If you acquire these, if you are apprehended, you end up in prison. You can't display it to your acquaintances, you cannot leave it to your family.”
Altering taken items by melting down or reshaping does lower the value. When it comes to gems, it also comes with considerable risk because modern cutting techniques give stones a larger and lighter surface area, and antique-cut stones would either attract notice or barter the price down for a coverup.
Crucially, however, dismantling or reshaping removes the proof of the crime. “My guess is that the robbers will try to bring the stolen goods to places with gem knowledge like a country, India or even as nearby as a city, and find someone to remove the stones,” said Marinello.
The heist at the Louvre has already raised questions about protective steps at the museum, with a leaked official review expected to be released soon pointing out “significant” and “persistent” delays in updating systems and observing that surveillance were lacking in many rooms. But specialists say displaying precious items in historic buildings with a steady stream of visitors comes with dangers that are impossible to remove entirely.
“Older structures are more difficult to protect,” said Erin Thompson. “They often have large accessible windows that makes it easy for criminals to escape, and there may be preservation laws in place that mean you can’t fit them with secure windows.”
The most solid security systems for structures should be designed “as a stronghold”, said a security advisor. “There should be several layers to deter attackers.”
Contemporary structures are equipped with advanced external CCTV cameras or integrated seismic detectors that raise alarm about a smashed window in immediately, but old museums may be reluctant to alter their exteriors. Laser scanners can be difficult to install to decorated surfaces. Motion and sound detectors may also have to be disabled during the daytime as hordes of visitors stomp through a museum.
The timing of the robbery, which took place between morning hours local time, was typical of recent thefts, Stürmann said. “It's logical why thefts tend to happen at either opening or closing times. Frequently when security rotate and before the museum is full of visitors who actually act as extra protection.”
Advances in technology may have introduced new gadgets that can raise the alarm more quickly and effectively, but it has also provided thieves new tools with which to circumvent protections. In the city, the robbers accessed the museum’s upper level with a vehicle-mounted ladder and breached a window with a electric tool.
An author said the conversation in France about the 232-year-old building had mostly centered on crowd control in recent years, and not as much on security.
The institution has an in-house team of about fifty full-time firefighters, but their purpose is mostly to protect the artworks from fires and flooding. “There is no quick reaction team,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the security of the Louvre all depends on political will and money, and currently France lacks sufficient money.”
