Louvre director recognises jewel theft failures, says she offered to resign

The Louvre’s director, adding that she had submitted a resignation to France’s culture minister after being refused, a “terrible failure” in security at the world-renowned Paris museum led to the weekend’s daylight crown jewel heist.

Laurence des Cars acknowledged that staff “did not detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough” when explaining to the French Senate on Wednesday how thieves stole a whopping 88 million euros ($102m) in jewels.

She told the senators, “We are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, and I have a lot of responsibility to take care of it,” she continued, adding that she had written her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati. Dati, she continued, turned down the resignation offer.

Des Cars claimed that the museum’s “strains” were caused by the heist on Sunday and that other “flaws” existed as well.

She claimed that while the Louvre’s alarm systems were operational during the heist, some of the museum’s cameras are “aging,” while the one closest to the thieves’ entry point was “directed westward” and thus did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in.

Des Cars also suggested that barriers be put in place to stop cars from parking directly next to the buildings, as well as a police station inside the museum.

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday, welcoming 30, 000 visitors every day, with visitors lining up in line for the largest and most popular museum in the world for the first time since the audacious daytime heist, which shocked the entire world.

Four men climbed through a window in the Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo’s Gallery) shortly after the museum’s opening at 9 a.m. on Sunday to enter through a truck with an extendable ladder to a balcony window.

According to Des Cars, the thieves placed bollards on the street to resemble they were doing maintenance work.

The thieves robbed eight pieces of art from the Napoleonic era before spending less than four minutes inside the Louvre. They escaped through Paris’s heartland on motorcycles. The thieves are still at large and the jewels are still missing three days later.

Napoleon Bonaparte gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, an emerald-and-diamond necklace as part of the haul. A diadem, which was once owned by Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was also taken, which is dotted with nearly 2, 000 diamonds.

As they fled, the thieves also dropped Eugenie’s imperial crown, which was adorned with more than 1,300 diamonds. Later, it was discovered unharmed but still recoverable outside the museum.

The heist was referred to as an “attack on a heritage that we cherish,” according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Louvre will not be held responsible for the theft of any of the items because none of them were privately insured. The cost of securing these priceless works would be in the billions each year.

Staff at the Louvre have repeatedly raised concerns about understaffing and overcrowding, leading to a staff walkout in June in protest.