Stolen Louvre jewels likely still ‘intact’ and in France, expert says

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00In our guest, Arthur Brand, he's joining us from Amsterdam. He is a detective specializing

00:05in art crime. Hello to you, Arthur. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct. Have you been following

00:11this investigation? I'm sure you have. And what do you make of this development?

00:18Well, it's a great development. The sooner they get the thieves, the more likely they get back

00:23the crown jewels. And I already predicted that these thieves were not doing their first heist.

00:29It's not like you wake up in the morning, you think, I become a thief. Let's do the Louvre.

00:34So, and when I heard that DNA was found, I predicted already that they would be caught

00:40because their DNA must be in some system. And I think even that the police already knew

00:47one or two days before arresting them last night, and they were trying to find out where they

00:53were hidden in jewels. But one of them was about to take off to Algeria, so they had to arrest

00:59them. But it's very good news for the French country, but also for the French police. They

01:06did an amazing job to get these people in just one week. And I think they might get the jewels.

01:13Well, at this stage, well, so one of the men reported to have trying to board a flight to

01:20Algeria. Le Figaro newspaper reporting the other was planning on going to Mali. Now,

01:25at the robbery, there were, I believe, four people seen at the robbery. So at least two

01:31people remain on the run. They might be part of a larger network. We don't know yet. At this

01:36stage of the investigation, what do you think happens to those people who are on the run?

01:41Are they going to buckle down and try to hide out? Will they be trying to use rail links or

01:46try to catch another flight? Or what do you think is going through their minds right now?

01:50Well, you can imagine what's going through their minds. They know that if they get caught,

01:56and they will get caught, they will end up five, six, maybe eight years in jail. So they

02:01are hiding. They're trying to get out of the country. Maybe one or two already got out of

02:06the country, but they will get caught. And the most important question now is, where are

02:12the jewels? They are now, the police is now waiting, their homes, homes of family members,

02:18home of known associates. So they are doing now everything to try to find the jewels. And

02:24hopefully the two men who got caught have the jewels in their position and not the two who are

02:29still on the run. But we have to wait for that news. But so far, everything is going according to

02:35the plan, catch them within a week, and try to find the jewels.

02:39Yeah. And trying to smuggle crown and imperial jewels out of the country is not an easy thing

02:45to do. Do you think that the remaining suspects would likely try to modify the jewels to make it

02:52easier to smuggle them? Or do you think they'd try to keep them in their original form?

02:57Well, they have to dismantle them. You cannot sell these crowns in their original form because

03:02everybody around the world knows them. They were on all the front pages. So they have to dismantle

03:08them. But because it has just been a week, they probably did not have the time to do that.

03:12And I don't think they smuggled them out of the country. That might have been a plan

03:16from the beginning, but within a week, they were not able to. They laid low because they knew the

03:21police was looking for known burglars, etc. So most likely they are still intact and they are

03:28most likely still in France. The director of the Louvre admitted that there were overlapses in

03:35Louvre security. What were those overlapses and what can be done to fix them?

03:42It's very hard to fix it. You know, you don't want to turn a museum in a fortress. The public has to

03:48see these jewels and other stuff. And we don't have armed guards in Europe. We don't want to have

03:56shootings. These buildings are old. These buildings are big. So you can do as much as you want with

04:02cameras, etc. But, you know, they can even come in with a gun and it's very hard to stop them.

04:09The only thing we can do is to slow them down. If the display cases are of thicker glass, thieves,

04:15when they go into the museum two weeks before just to see how it can be done, if they know it will

04:22take them 10 minutes to come in and get out, they know the police only need seven minutes. So

04:28the more difficult you make it for these thieves, the more likely they won't target your museum

04:34at all. So that's the only thing we can do. And about these jewels specifically, was there

04:40something about them that would have made them more appealing to thieves and other jewels that

04:46were nearby that were also incredibly valuable?

04:50Yeah, well, these are the French crown jewels. And I think they went for them because they saw an

04:57opportunity. They thought, well, the security is not as tight as we thought it was. And I know a lot

05:03of retired thieves, and they all like to brag about their biggest heist. And they all would have

05:09dreamed of, you know, doing the Louvre heist. It's the biggest in the world. It's you don't get it

05:15bigger than this, the Louvre, the most famous museum in the world. So I think it has been

05:20they saw the opportunity, but also, you know, to become a legend, you go for the Louvre.

05:28Go for the Louvre. And I'm guessing a lot of hotels also reviewing their security

05:32protocol at the moment. Arthur, thank you very much for your time. Arthur Brandt joining us

05:35from Amsterdam.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended