‘Outdated cameras’: After big jewel heist, Louvre boss wants police station inside museum

The Louvre director, speaking at a French senate hearing, admitted that visual surveillance of the streets and the area around the museum “is our weakness.” She said that outside the Apollo Gallery, there is only one camera and it “didn’t cover the balcony” that the thieves used to break into the museum and steal the jewels.

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“There are a few perimeter cameras, but they are outdated,” des Cars said. “The installed base is very inadequate.”

Notably, she also said that she had offered to resign after the robbery took place; however, France’s culture minister, Rachida Dati, rejected her offer.

As people in France and across the world wondered how four thieves entered the popular museum, smashed a second-floor window, and stole the jewels without getting caught, ministers reportedly admitted that there were security lapses at the venue.

Louvre director defends alarms

While admitting that security cameras failed to cover the thieves’ entry, des Cars said all alarms functioned properly. “The only camera installed is directed westward and therefore did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in,” she said.

“There are some perimeter cameras, but they are ageing,” she added.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the “speeding up” of security measures at the Louvre after the museum reopened its doors.

The thieves stole eight pieces of jewellery, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife and a diadem dotted with around 2,000 diamonds that once belonged to Empress Eugenie.

Lack of guards at the museum?

Union representative Christian Galani, who works at the Louvre, has claimed that the museum does not have enough security guards due to job cuts over the past 15 years.

“You can walk through several areas without seeing a single guard,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.