Louvre heist gang 'are professional thieves', may be tracked down via DNA, art crime detective says

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00:00I have so many questions. One man perhaps who can help us is Arthur Brand.

00:03Arthur is an art crime detective. Joining us live, Arthur, thanks for being with us.

00:08If this was your investigation, where would you start?

00:13Well, the police is first checking out the security cameras, not only from yesterday,

00:18but from the last two or three months, because these thieves have been there before just to

00:24check the cameras, the doors, the thickness of the class. And they are looking for people who do not

00:30fit in. You know, people who are not acting like tourists. They are looking around, not paying

00:37attention at the paintings. So that's the first thing they do. And probably they have a list of

00:42the 10 usual suspects, people who have been caught before doing heists like this. Well, this is an

00:49exceptional heist. This is the Louvre, but I'm sure they already have some suspects. And the best

00:55thing is what I read today is that they found a helmet. There might be DNA in it. And these thieves,

01:03this was not their first heist. These are professionals. So most likely their DNA is in

01:10some system somewhere in France. So this, as you say, a specialized job, it's a very narrow market in

01:18terms of who might have done it. And of course, who their client might be.

01:23Yeah, well, there probably is not a client. Nobody would touch this. These items are so well known.

01:30They are now on the front pages of all the media in the world. So you cannot sell them. What their

01:36plan is, is to melt down the gold, to take off the jewels, the diamonds and sell them separately.

01:44You know, these small diamonds, if you sell them separately, maybe somewhere outside of Europe,

01:50they don't have a stamp on it, which says the Louvre. They can even cut them down to smaller pieces.

01:57And then there was no link anymore to the Louvre. And that's why it's a race against time. The sooner

02:04the police get these thieves and they will catch them, the more likely the objects will return intact.

02:14And what you're saying, Arthur, is that this isn't something that a kind of average run-of-the-mill

02:19thief could actually take on. This is someone with highly specialized knowledge, highly specialized

02:25techniques, and of course, a highly specialized network to move these things on.

02:29Yeah. Most of these criminal gangs, organized crime, they have people who do the burglaries,

02:37they have people who can melt down gold, who can hide stuff. So they probably prepare this very well.

02:44They already might have somebody who can dismantle these pieces and sell the diamond separately.

02:50But my hope is that even if they lined up some people to do this, because of the media attention,

02:58they might back off. That's my hope for the moment.

03:03So possibility that this might be recovered in some way, shape or form.

03:06Perhaps maybe the Louvre at some point might be approached to buy back these items.

03:10Well, I don't think so, because, you know, if they ask a ransom in these cases,

03:18you always have to deal with the police. The guy who shows up, apparently somebody from the insurance

03:24company or from the Louvre, that's always a police officer disguised as the head of the Louvre or whatever.

03:31In terms of how this was done, you mentioned that the police would be looking at security cameras to see

03:38who was around, someone looking perhaps like there weren't tourists, but they were, you know,

03:42looking to see what the cameras were, casing the joint, to use an English phrase.

03:47Do you think there's a possibility there could be an inside man, someone within the Louvre who was helping?

03:51Well, in many cases regarding our thefts, there is someone inside.

04:00It could be a curator, but most normally it's somebody who knows about the security cameras,

04:08somebody who might clean there, you know.

04:11So often somebody inside tips off people from the outside.

04:15It's not sure if, in this case, this has happened, but you cannot exclude it, that somebody tipped them off.

04:23Like, we are doing construction work here now, right now in the Louvre.

04:30These windows are not very well protected.

04:34So if you put on some yellow jackets and you take with your mechanical leather, you might have a chance.

04:40So who knows?

04:41Do you think there are logistical clues?

04:45Because clearly the equipment, I'm thinking perhaps of the hoist used to get up the front of the building,

04:51that kind of thing.

04:52Someone must have hired that.

04:53Someone must have turned up at some place and been caught on a security camera hiring that.

04:58Do you think there could be something in the logistics that might give this gang away?

05:03Well, this is something the police will investigate.

05:06I doubt that this mechanical leather has been rented, that it probably has been stolen.

05:13But they are checking traffic cameras to see what kind of cars did they use or motorcycles or whatever.

05:21Where did they go to?

05:23And those can provide leads, you know, who these guys are.

05:29But it still will be a difficult job.

05:31I put my hopes on the DNA.

05:35There must be DNA.

05:37And as I said, these are professional thieves.

05:39They have been caught before for other cases.

05:42And their DNA must be in some system somewhere in France.

05:46Indeed.

05:46And they must have been a highly, highly discerning group.

05:51Not just your everyday criminal, not just your opportunist criminal,

05:54but people who knew exactly what they were targeting,

05:57exactly what they were looking for,

05:59and they knew the value of what they were getting.

06:00So that, again, is a kind of criminal who perhaps may well be known to the authorities.

06:07Yes.

06:08The police is now studying the modus operandi.

06:11How did they do it?

06:12Because, you know, criminals don't change their habits.

06:16If some heist goes successful, the next time they will do the same thing.

06:22So the police is studying their way of acting.

06:25Probably they already have some suspects, some usual suspects.

06:29They are eavesdropping on them.

06:32So I think even the Secret Service might be involved because it's such a big scandal in France.

06:39It's hurting France in their soul.

06:43It's their crown jewels from the Louvre.

06:45Who would have thought that the Louvre could be targeted by thieves?

06:49In seven minutes, coming in and out with the French crown jewels.

06:54This is unheard of.

06:55And I think it's the heist of the decade.

06:59Arthur Brand, thank you for your time.

07:00And thank you very much for your analysis.

07:02You're really shedding light on the process that the police will be going for.

07:05And, of course, the scale of what we've seen happen here at the Louvre.

07:08Arthur Brand is an art crime detective joining us from the Netherlands.

07:11Thank you very much, sir, for being with us here on France 34.

07:13We really appreciate your time.

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