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00:00Well, it took was seven minutes, but the Louvre has been closed since that heist of the century
00:07on Sunday morning, thieves making off with priceless jewels before making a clean getaway
00:14along the banks of the Seine. That's putting the onus on security. The French president
00:23had promised a beefed-up renovation of Le Monde that would take decades, but it's not happened yet.
00:33And meanwhile, visitors have continued to come. Delano de Souza has more.
00:39An investigation in full swing in the aftermath of Sunday's heist at Paris' iconic Louvre.
00:47The French justice minister says the massive security lapse at the most visited museum in the
00:52world has tarnished the image of France. It's clear that we've failed since people
00:57were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes,
01:02grab priceless jewels, and give France a terrible image. French officials say a team of 60 investigators
01:08are currently working on a theory. The burglary was planned and executed by an organized crime group.
01:15Authorities adding they've poured in significant resources to track down the perpetrators,
01:20and President Macron has expressed confidence they will be found. According to security experts,
01:26a Louvre would have had systems in place to signal a break-in was underway.
01:30In a museum like the Louvre, breaking a window should normally trigger an alarm.
01:36That means an alarm would have gone off to a supervisor in the security team,
01:39and you would know exactly where it was taking place, and then you can react.
01:43Sunday's seven-minute raid saw thieves dressed as construction workers take off with eight
01:51priceless items of Napoleonic jewelry. Back in January, the French president announced a
01:57renovation and modernization plan for the Louvre, which seeks to enhance security after 15 percent
02:03of its team were scrapped over the past decade.
02:08Well, for more, let's start our coverage outside the world's most visited museum with France 24's
02:16Claire Pacalin. Claire, as we saw in that report, they're looking for clues. What's the latest?
02:23Well, police are still racing against the clock, Francois, to find the thieves, but also recover
02:32those precious, priceless jewels which were stolen before. And of course, this is what people are
02:38seriously worried about, that these jewels could be broken up and sold on. I had a little walk
02:44earlier on, ran onto the quayside of the Seine, and you can see a window which was smashed. It's been
02:49boarded up, and you can see a police car underneath. And of course, the thieves left behind the vehicle
02:55which they used to carry out the robbery. So police will be studying that vehicle, trying to find any
03:01evidence, any fingerprints perhaps. We understand that they left in a big, big hurry because they
03:07actually stole nine items, but one of them, the crown of the Empress Eugenie, they dropped on the
03:13roadside and it was found near the museum. So it sounds like they left in a really, really big
03:19hurry. The museum, of course, has been closed today as police continue to carry out their
03:24investigation. The Louvre is always closed on a Tuesday, so it will be closed again on Tuesday.
03:28And we haven't yet had confirmation as to whether or not it will reopen on Wednesday.
03:33There were some thinking maybe it would open this Monday. It did not happen.
03:38We can see there's crowds behind you still. What are people telling you?
03:42There have been crowds here all day, Francois, with people coming to take a look, take that famous
03:50photo that many people take in front of the pyramid. But also I spoke to dozens of people who told me
03:56they had tickets today. And even though they had heard that the museum had been closed, they'd received
04:00an email and they can get a refund for the tickets they've already paid for. They wanted to come anyway.
04:05They wanted to take that photo in front of the pyramid. They wanted to see what was going on here.
04:09I spoke to a woman from Slovakia who told me that she doesn't know when she's going to get a chance
04:13to come back to Paris. And she had tickets booked for 3 p.m. today. And she said she felt awful about
04:17it. She was really disappointed. I also spoke to a woman from Virginia who was here with her
04:22elderly father. And they said that they're not sure this was a once in a lifetime trip coming to
04:26Paris. They had expected to visit the Louvre today. And she told me they thought it was really
04:31upsetting and unfair that not only have these priceless pieces of French history been stolen,
04:36but also it means that thousands of people haven't been able to go into the Louvre and
04:40see the collections today. And I also spoke to a woman and her husband from Brazil. And
04:46they told me that they, again, they had planned to visit the Louvre today. Their flight going
04:50back to Brazil is tonight. So they're not going to get inside the Louvre today. It's closed.
04:55And they were disappointed because, again, Brazil is a long way. And people come from all over
04:58the world to visit this museum. It's the most visited museum in the world. And so there are a lot
05:03of disappointed people outside the museum today. And you heard that clip and that report of the
05:08justice minister wondering aloud if this makes France a bit of a laughing stock. What were
05:15people saying on that score? No one told me that they felt that this made France a laughing
05:22stock or that it was a humiliation. I think people here are really sad. One woman even told
05:27me that she felt devastated that she wasn't able to visit the Louvre today. And although I did speak
05:32to a French lady, a grandmother who was here with her granddaughter from the southwest of
05:36France, they've come up to Paris for the week. It's the school holidays, of course, here in
05:40France. So we have French visitors also at the Louvre. And she said that as a French person,
05:44she felt devastated that these precious pieces of French history had been stolen. And we don't
05:50know where they are. The last time a big robbery took place at the Louvre was in 1998. A painting
05:56by Camille Corot was stolen. It was a painting of the countryside near Paris, Chemin de
06:01Rousseff. That painting was never seen again. It was stolen in broad daylight when the museum
06:05was open on a Sunday, just like this robbery took place on a Sunday. And that painting was
06:10never seen again. So of course, there's a lot of fears here in France that A, the culprits
06:14won't be found, but B, the jewelry will never be found either.
06:18Claire Pacalin, many thanks for that live update outside of the Louvre. Well, for more, he's a
06:24descendant of some of those who had a stake in this Prince, Joachim Murat. Thank you for
06:31being with us. Descendant of Marshall Murat and of Napoleon's sister, Caroline. Thank you
06:36for being with us here on France 24.
06:37Thank you for having me.
06:40Your reaction, first of all, to what these pieces represent, these jewels represent.
06:47As a French citizen, it represents the real inheritance and the real proof of the multi-secular
06:56history of the French monarchy and the French nations altogether. Part of the jewelry were
07:04worn by Marie Antoinette. Others were built during the Mazarin time, which bring us back
07:10to Louis XIII. So those are very, very old and exceptional jewels. But amongst all these
07:18considerations, the shock is because of the symbol it represents. We have been hurt in our
07:26very soul, you know, as French. And personally, as one of the heir of the family, it's even
07:32more intimate for me. So I was literally devastated, really devastated and saddened.
07:39And you heard Kepakana speculating that, I mean, these pieces are so well known that the only way
07:44to get rid of them would be to break them up into pieces. Do you see that as a possibility?
07:50Yes, of course, unfortunately. So let's hope that will not be the case. And I'm very confident
07:55that the police forces are extremely, extremely sharp to fight that type of crime. Very recently,
08:02the European policies cooperated all together to fight illegal trafficking of
08:08art pieces. And they recovered with 17 countries cooperation, they recovered 11,000 stolen pieces.
08:14So my sincere thought is that we will capture the culprit, they will be caught, and they will face
08:24jail. But will we recover the jewels? That I don't know.
08:29Yeah, we never recovered, for instance, the sword of Charles X, the former king from the 19th century.
08:34Indeed, indeed, indeed. And in this particular case, it's the imperial regalia that have been targeted.
08:41The regalia of the Empress Josephine, the Empress Eugénie, the Queen Hortense, all the women of the
08:50French First Empire and Second Empire.
08:51Why? Because they're easy to take away? It's easy on the back of a scooter, you can put them in your pocket?
08:57It is jewels as itself. So you put it in a bag and you go away. But there are other jewels available
09:03for the taking in the room, like the very big diamond named the Region. You have two other very huge diamonds
09:10exposed there. They could have stolen them. They targeted specifically the imperial regalias.
09:17Why? Question mark. So you have several options. Either it's because they were made of stones that
09:23are so precious that you can dismantle and sell them one by one for a huge price. Or it's a mad
09:28billionaire willing to order that ice. Or it's a criminal organization who wants to stole this
09:37regalia as a leverage against potential threat from the French state or other states in the world,
09:44because it happens recently that the paintings of Caravaggio was stolen by the Drangueta, I think,
09:50the Calabrese mafia, and used as a leverage for a compensation for trafficking. So that could
09:57be it. Or that could be, we said, a potential foreign interference. I don't know. Who knows?
10:04Or it could be like in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair. Some rich person who,
10:09some flight of fancy wants to keep it in their study.
10:12Yeah. The option of the mad billionaire willing to order that time of ice to have it in his home. But
10:19let's hope this is it. Because if it's it, then it will remain complete. It will never be
10:26dismantled. And we will ultimately, eventually, we will find them back. If it's not today,
10:31maybe 10 years from now. That will be one of the best case scenarios, should the jewels flee away
10:37from the police forces.
10:38Hello, Rachim Murat. We have Oliver G, who's the host of the Earful Tower podcast. And he spoke
10:46to two American tourists, Jake and Holly, who were actually in the room when the heist happened.
10:53Let's take a listen.
10:53And I hear this, yeah, these bangs, like three loud bangs of trying to get in that I assume. And I mean,
11:05just to jump to it, then the attendant. Yeah, that was startling to hear those three loud bangs. But
11:11what got us to start running out of the room, which is when everybody started running, and even the
11:17information concierge started running, was the saws. We could hear the saws. They're saying
11:25chainsaws. They weren't chainsaws. They were probably small, like what we would call in the
11:27States, like sawzalls, like mini saws to cut tile. And when we heard that, I looked at Holly and I
11:34said, this is something serious. Like this is, we thought it was a terrorist attack.
11:40I think it was a terrorist attack. Your reaction hearing that clip?
11:44I want to say, I want to say that the security guards in the Louvre did what they were trained
11:50for, to protect the visitors. Right. So they protect the visitors. So we can't, we cannot blame
11:56them. Because indeed, who knows at the time what was happening? It could have been someone with,
12:00with, with a bomb, with a bomb belt. It could have been a terrorist attack. It could, it could have
12:05turned into a hostage situation. So the good, the good thing was to get, get the visitors out.
12:11Well, many failures down the, down the security line have been, will be identified afterwards. But
12:19today the security, the security guys in the Louvre did their job and they did it well. They saved the
12:25life of the visitor while not knowing what was exactly the threat. The threat could have been huge.
12:30What is my reaction is that today for the French touristic industry, it's a disaster. Because you know,
12:36the French touristic industry is extremely important for France. And when you are abroad and you, you,
12:42you, you, you plan to visit the Louvre and you say, okay, if someone can just climb a ladder,
12:47break the window and stole the jewels, what if a terrorist do the same? So why should I go to the
12:53Louvre? It's very dangerous. So that's, that's, that's another, that's another question mark that what
12:58will be the impact on overall on the touristic industry for France.
13:02There's a huge debate taking place this Monday among other museums around the world. The, some Italian
13:08museums saying, yeah, we, we had a spate of, of thieves. And so we beefed up our security years ago. The Louvre
13:15is not up to snuff when it comes to this. Others like the head of the Vatican museum saying, of course, this could
13:20happen here too. So it's hard to know, are there going to be more copycat attacks? Are they going
13:26to be able to put, I heard some statistic, like there's only one third of the areas of the Louvre
13:30that are covered by cameras, CCTV cameras. Is it going to be all brought up to speed fast?
13:39Fast? Probably not. Because I think it's something like hundreds of kilometers of wiring to, to, to,
13:44to make all CCTV available all over the 94,000 square meters of the Louvre. It's
13:50huge. And, uh, obviously some, uh, financial and budgetary arbitrage trade-off, uh, have been decided,
13:57uh, let's say five, three, four, five years ago by the, by the Louvre direction, that by the Louvre
14:04management, that was not exactly in favor of increasing security. Today's the result. So, okay. So this was
14:12obviously a mistake. There was this pledge by the president that he's going to increase by hundreds of
14:17millions, uh, renovation, including security, but it's going to take place over a decade.
14:22Yeah, of course, because it takes time. And unfortunately, it has not been taken care of
14:27five years ago, 10 years ago, as it was planned, by the way, initially, because the other,
14:32you know, there is many in France, we do a lot of, uh, auditing and reports and, on the situation.
14:37And, uh, many alarms have been raised on the security situation of the Louvre, not only in case of an
14:42attack or an ice, but in case of a fire, for example, particularly after the, the terrible
14:47fire of the cathedrale Notre Dame, which by the way, is a very similar shock today for the
14:52French as what we are living now, as, as what we are living now, the, the Notre Dame fire,
14:57it was an equivalent shock for the, for the French soul, for the French spirit. And it's a
15:02very big drama for us what's happening.
15:05Yeah. The Louvre, you mentioned 9,000 kilometers of, uh,
15:08Nineteen, 94,000 square meters. Square meters. Uh, the, the, the, for people who've never been to
15:17Paris, it's difficult to comprehend how big this was. It was so big that in the old days,
15:21it was also the museum and the finance ministry before they moved out. Indeed, indeed, indeed,
15:25indeed. It's, it's, it's, it's absolutely colossal. I think that if you want to visit the entire Louvre,
15:30spending something like, uh, five seconds in front of every art piece, it will take you a month
15:34altogether. So it's so huge, so big. It's one of the biggest,
15:38if not the biggest museum in the world. Too big? No, no, because, you know, it's, it's,
15:43why? I mean, it's, it's, it's available for the public. So it's, it's not too big. It's
15:47fantastic. It's a beautiful gift to humanity, the Louvre, like the Metropolitan, like the
15:51British Museum. Those are fabulous gifts to the world and, uh, and to, and to the,
15:55and to the world population. Unfortunately, there is no, uh, zero risk possibility in this
16:01world. But we have experienced and witnessed now a level of, uh, let's say, uh, uh, unresponsible
16:11taking care of the, uh, the security situations. That is very worrying. Yeah.
16:14Well, is it more irresponsible than in the past? After all, it's been more than a century since the,
16:21this Italian man walked off with the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. What's, what's different? Is it,
16:26is it the securities lacks or is it just simply that there's more media coverage?
16:30You know, it's a system. I mean, it's, it's extremely complicated. This, the, the, the Louvre
16:34machine as a, as a, as an organization is incredibly complicated. It's huge. It involves
16:40thousands of, uh, of people, decision-making. I don't know how it works, but apparently it's
16:45because one of the, one of the criticisms that was made was that, uh, because it has lots of
16:51temporary exhibits, the, uh, emphasis is put on securing those items that are loaned, not on
16:57what's there permanently. Probably, probably. But you know, the Louvre is the most, it's supposed to
17:01be the most secure museum in France and the Galerie d'Apollon where the ice happen is supposed to be
17:07the most secureized part of the Louvre. Right. That's kind of worrying. All right. We'll have to
17:13leave it there. So much more to talk about. Thank you so much for joining us here on France 24.
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