The Louvre’s Director Laurence des Cars appeared before the French Senate yesterday, October 22, addressing questions about Sunday’s brazen jewel heist at the museum as investigators continue their search for the culprits.
In a two-hour livestreamed questioning, des Cars, who took the helm of the museum in 2021, answered questions about the heist posed by the Culture Committee of the French Senate, admitting that the Louvre campus had insufficient or decrepit security infrastructure. Perhaps most damning was des Cars’s admission that a perimeter video surveillance camera was pointing away from the suspects during the minutes-long robbery. She reportedly also said that she offered to resign from her post, but her request was denied.
During her testimony, des Cars highlighted what she said were her previous attempts to call attention to inadequate and outdated museum security, including a prior testimony before the French Senate in September of 2024 in which she warned of insufficient security infrastructure. De Cars was accompanied by other Louvre leaders, including Deputy General Administrator Francis Steinbock and Security Chief Dominique Buffin, who is the first woman to hold the role and has faced misogynistic backlash online since the heist.
“I have consistently drawn the attention of our supervisory authorities, the national representation, and the media to the state of disrepair and general obsolescence of the Louvre, its buildings, and its infrastructure,” des Cars testified.
Des Cars’s appearance before the committee coincided with the Louvre’s post-heist reopening. A spokesperson for the museum told Hyperallergic that timed-entry tickets were completely booked through the week, as they had been before the high-profile crime. Macron reportedly ordered the “speeding up” of security measures at the museum on Wednesday. The Louvre spokesperson declined to answer Hyperallergic‘s question about whether extra security measures had been implemented before the museum reopened.
According to des Cars’s testimony, the museum was undergoing gradual security improvements. The upgrades took place in phases for various reasons, de Cars said, including the large size of the Louvre campus and public interest in keeping the museum open. Some of the renewal projects were expected to begin in early 2026.
“It would be inconceivable to close the Louvre to the public,” de Cars said. “They necessarily take place over several years.”
De Cars said that the museum began installing new perimeter fences in 2022 and has expanded the security staff by 5.5% since she assumed her post in 2021. Still, staff morale appeared to be at a concerning low when employees went on strike in June, citing exhaustion and poor working conditions related to mass tourism. The museum closed for the day as a result.
The robbers entered the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon at 9:30am on Sunday morning, according to des Cars’s testimony, triggering alarms. “Aging” security cameras, including one pointing away from the window entry point, did not capture footage of the suspects breaking into the museum and stealing the 19th-century crown jewels. Five minutes later, a museum operations staff member called the police. De Cars said museum staff chased the suspects, which prevented them from incinerating their vehicle. Four individuals made off with eight crown jewels, including an emerald set containing gems reportedly originating in Colombia and a tiara set with diamonds and pearls likely from the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean. The estimated value of the stolen items stands at roughly €88 million (~$102 million).
A video that emerged yesterday shows at least two individuals, one wearing a bright-yellow safety vest resembling those worn by construction workers, rapidly descending the vehicle’s basket-lift contraption.
De Cars suggested short- and long-term security measures to be implemented at the Louvre, including the possibility of a police station inside the museum, restrictions on vehicle access near the building, and enhanced intruder detection technology.
Experts fear that the jewels will be melted down and sold on the black market, making the prospect of a safe return to the museum unlikely. Though French authorities found traces of DNA on items discarded by the robbers, no suspects have been identified as of publication, and the International Criminal Police Organization has issued a worldwide alert for the artifacts.
