A CRISIS meeting was held at the Louvre today after raiders plunged France’s reputation into the gutter by stealing priceless jewels from the most popular art museum in the world.
The four gang members are still at large following their daring daylight heist on Sunday morning.
They got away with artefacts described as the country’s “crown jewels”, including an Imperial tiara containing 2,000 diamonds.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s Justice Minister, said: “We failed and presented a deplorable image of France.”
Authorities believe the stash could have been stolen to order a black-market kingpin, and there are fears the jewels may never be recovered.
It led to the Louvre being shut for the second day in a row on Monday, as senior ministers met inside.
BRUTAL ATTACK
Moment OAP, 82, is beaten unconscious after trying to stop fare-dodger
TRAGIC LOLA
Horror injuries of girl, 12, ‘raped & strangled by female migrant’ revealed
“The meeting was held to try and identify what went wrong,” said a government spokesman.
Those attending included Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, and Rachida Dati, the Culture Minister,
A source said: “During this meeting it was agreed that instructions be sent to Prefects (regional administrators) to immediately organise an update on the availability of security measures around cultural institutions, and to strengthen security measures where necessary.”
Mr Darmanin conceded that windows and display cabinets were too easily broken into, and there were not enough CCTV cameras.
Security guards also failed to confront the gang, while police did not react to an alarm in time to arrest them.
A leaked report by France’s auditing watchdog – the Cours des Comptes – meanwhile revealed “consistent and persistent delays” in bringing security up to date in the world’s most visited art museum.
Despite an annual operating budget of £280million, a third of rooms in the Louvre’s Denton Wing – where the burglary took place – had no cameras at all.
A blurry image showing one of the raiders breaking into a cabinet has emerged, but it is by no means clear enough to identify him.
There were five security guards on duty the Apollo Gallery – from where the jewels were taken – but all of them ran away after being threatened with angle-grinders and chainsaws.
Nobody was hurt during the heist, which took just seven minutes from the moment the thieves got up to the Louvre’s first floor using an extendable ladder on the back of a flatbed truck.
Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, described the criminals as a “strike team”, and said the “highly organised criminal gang” could well be working to a collector in the black market, who had ordered the pieces.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella called the robbery “a humiliation”, while the party’s long-term presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, spoke of “a wound to the French soul”.
There are now 60 investigators working full-time on the high-profile case, while overseas police forces have also been informed.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed: “We will recover the works and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
He added: “Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this, under the leadership of the Paris prosecutor’s office.”
Laurent Nunez, France’s Interior Minister, said an investigation had been launched into “theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime” by a “highly-organised criminal gang”.
The “Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police” is leading the enquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Mr Nuñez said: “We can’t prevent everything. There is great vulnerability in French museums.
“Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and I’m hopeful.”
He said CCTV footage was being studied, and “it’s not impossible that the perpetrators are foreigners”.
He added: “The gang was experienced and had obviously been watching the site before the operation.”
The raid happened between 9.20am and 9.27am on Sunday, before management chose to shut the museum for the day.
Created by King Louis XIV – who identified himself with the sun god, Apollo – the fabulously ornate Galerie d’Apollon is home to numerous priceless jewels.
Among them is the Eugénie Crown, which was found broken and discarded by the thieves below the Louvre window.
Made in 1855, the Second Empire piece is adorned by thousands of diamonds and emeralds.
It is named after Eugénie de Montijo, who became Empress of the French following her marriage to Napoleon III in 1853.
Napoleon III’s father was Louis Bonarparte, the younger brother of the more famous Napoleon I, or Napoleon Bonaparte.
CRASH TRAGEDY
England icon Stuart Pearce’s son, 21, killed in tractor crash
‘GUT-WRENCHING’
My little girl is slowly fading before my eyes and will die before she’s 10
After being crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804, Napoleon and Josephine amassed one of the most sumptuous jewellery collections ever.
Many of the pieces were stolen from Royalty during the French Revolution, while others were amassed from around the Empire.
#Louvre #crisis #meeting #held #today #humiliating #heist #sparks #security #boost #France #manhunt #thieves
