Louvre Robbery Shines Focus on Protection Issues

Breaking into the world’s most-visited museum in broad daylight, taking eight pieces of priceless historical gems and disappearing into the city traffic on humble scooters may seem like the boldest of crimes, carried out for global fame and subsequent movie adaptations.

Experts who observe patterns in international art crime, however, see the recent robbery at the Louvre as a more practical matter: the most recent in a series of quick-hit thefts centered more on the monetary worth of valuable gems or metals than the artifacts’ significance, perpetuating a pattern that has emerged over the last decade in Germany, the UK and the US. The venue, they propose, would have been of lesser importance to the thieves.

“One might wonder why thieves who want to steal valuable jewellery are breaking into a globally renowned museum rather than a Cartier store,” said Christopher A Marinello. “It's straightforward: it’s because nowadays a Cartier store is better protected.”

A series of violent retail store thefts mean that many outlets have strengthened their security in recent years, with armed guards on their premises and merchandise no longer kept on display overnight. Cultural institutions, meanwhile, look vulnerable, in part because of the inherent factor of being public-facing institutions in older structures, and partly the financial situation in many western countries.

“After the pandemic, governments across the globe have cut back on police and the culture sector,” said Marinello. “With criminals entering the Louvre, it shows how vulnerable our museums have become. This is a difficult time to be a museum.”

The theft of the objects – including jewelry pieces made up of precious stones and 631 diamonds, the crown of a historical figure featuring thousands of diamonds and a hugely valuable crown once owned by a royal that the robbers dropped by the roadside on their way out – has inevitably been compared with the 1911 theft of the famous painting from the same museum, carried out by the Italian handyman the thief.

More relevant comparisons may be the 2019 burglary of valuables from a German institution worth over millions, the theft of a £4.75m gold toilet from a UK landmark the that year, the 2017 robbery of a valuable item from a European museum or even a series of robberies of collector items from US mining museums.

“It's a clear trend here,” said Marinello. “Smash, grab, and melt it down as quickly as possible.”

If the items were to remain intact, specialists say, the thieves would find it hard to sell them. “There’s no way to sell something as recognizable as the museum's gems on the legal marketplace”, commented an art crime researcher of the a relevant organization.

“They would be immediately recognised, particularly given the cultural authorities has published photos of the pieces. Even a private collector or an sales venue would want to see paperwork establishing proper ownership before touching such remarkable pieces.”

In the previous years, museums were often hesitant to go public about the disappearance of famous works of art and would remain quiet out of shame. These days, as art thefts are more reported on, the keeping and sale of taken items is risky business for any criminal.

“If you steal a Picasso, it has to remain intact or it becomes valueless, and you have to devise a plan to keep it in hiding, perhaps by moving it among difficult criminal actors,” said Marinello. “There's ongoing risk to the danger of an partner informing authorities to cash in a ransom.”

For comparable factors, an art detective said it was vanishingly unlikely that the theft had been commissioned. “Stolen to order is something from films,” he said. “No one would handle these items. It’s all around the world and in all the newspapers. If you buy this, if you get caught, you end up in prison. You can't display it to your acquaintances, you cannot leave it to your family.”

Altering taken items by dismantling or reshaping does reduce the worth. When it comes to diamonds, it also comes with considerable risk because contemporary cutting techniques give stones a bigger and lighter surface area, and antique-cut stones would either attract notice or reduce value for a coverup.

Crucially, however, melting down or reshaping eliminates the evidence of the crime. “I suspect that the robbers will try to bring the stolen goods to locations with diamond expertise like Israel, another nation or even as nearby as Antwerp, and locate an expert to cut out the stones,” suggested Marinello.

The heist at the Louvre has already brought up concerns about security measures at the institution, with a unauthorized state auditor report expected to be published next month pointing out “considerable” and “persistent” slow progress in modernizing equipment and noting that surveillance were missing in many rooms. But security experts say displaying precious items in historic buildings with a steady stream of guests comes with risks that are impossible to eliminate completely.

“Older structures are much harder to protect,” explained Erin Thompson. “They often have nice big street-facing windows that makes it easy for thieves to get away, and there may be building protection statutes in place that mean you are unable to install them with secure windows.”

The best protective measures for buildings should be conceptualised “like a fortress”, said Peter Stürmann. “There should be several layers to deter attackers.”

Contemporary structures are fitted with state-of-the-art surveillance systems or in-built vibration sensors that raise alarm about a broken glass in real time, but old museums may be hesitant to uglify their exteriors. Detection devices can be hard to install to stuccoed ceilings. Sensors may also have to be disabled during the day as crowds stomp through a museum.

The schedule of the robbery, which took place between morning hours in Paris, was common of recent thefts, Stürmann said. “It's logical why robberies tend to happen at either start or end of day. Frequently when guards rotate and prior to the museum is full of visitors who effectively act as additional security staff.”

Technological progress may have introduced new devices that can raise the alarm more quickly and efficiently, but it has also provided robbers new tools with which to bypass security measures. In the city, the thieves accessed the museum’s first-floor window with a mobile equipment and cut through a window with a electric tool.

Elaine Sciolino said the conversation in the country about the 232-year-old structure had primarily centered on visitor management in the past decade, and less on protection.

The institution has an on-site brigade of about 50 permanent firefighters, but their mission is mainly to protect the artworks from blazes and water damage. “There is no quick reaction team,” Sciolino said. “In the end, the security of the Louvre all depends on political will and funding, and at present the nation lacks sufficient resources.”