00:06Ironically, some observers note the stolen items may be the only pieces in the Louvre that weren't
00:12already stolen from somewhere else to begin with. Historians estimate that nearly 80 percent of the
00:19museum's collection originated from colonial conquests and imperial expeditions. That
00:25uncomfortable truth, many argue, is the real core of the story. European analysts see the heist as a
00:31mirror held up to France itself, a nation strained by political instability, economic fatigue, and
00:38growing social unrest. I guess you are not expecting the president of the republic to be in front of the
00:45museum and be like that and prevent robbery. I mean, it's not his role, okay? I think that somebody
00:53has to be blamed is that the lady in charge, the director of the Louvre, she has to be blamed
01:00because she receives a report and a warning. She is the one who should dismiss. She has, she's the one
01:07who has to resign, not the president. I mean, the president, I mean, you cannot expect your president
01:14to be in front of each of the museum, I guess.
01:22It wasn't just a robbery, one senior cultural critic in Brussels said. It was a symbolic
01:28message reclaiming that what France once took can also be taken from France. Investigators
01:34remained tight-lipped about how the thieves managed to infiltrate one of the most secure museums in the
01:39world in broad daylight. Yet the brazenness of the act, and its timing, between a collapsing
01:46government and another trembling under pressure, has deepened public unease. To many, it feels
01:52as though the country's sense of pride and protection has been breached.
01:55It's a symbol that has been attacked. And France, for France, it's really a very critical and even
02:05political issue, let's say. And also the amount of the, the, the law, which is the value of the
02:13juries are around 88 million euros. With considerable intelligence, because really the timing was
02:22incredible. And they got lucky because the police, uh, went to the wrong place when they finally got
02:27the alarm. Uh, and they were also lucky, these burglars, because the casing of the jewels was, um,
02:35not as, um, uh, it, it wasn't impenetrable. Okay. This was not Fort Knox. So they did have some time
02:42to drill, uh, a hole in, in the, in the glass. And, uh, you know, the, the Louisville doesn't have
02:48armed police inside. Uh, you have to go get them. Uh, you just have security and they came in and
02:54the burglars threatened them with these drills. And so really nobody wanted to be, uh, attacked.
03:01And in the past, uh, there have been guards who were, um, overpowered and gagged and tied up,
03:08um, a few decades ago. So nobody wants to go through that.
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