Was it the heist of the century or a display of incompetence on the part of the world's most famous museum? Several former jewel thieves with direct experience of such acts reacted to the news of the spectacular break-in at the Louvre.
The balcony where the thieves broke into the Louvre Museum/FOTO:X
During their criminal careers, they had to deal with luxury stores, diamonds hidden in the most unusual places and hard years in prison. Now, I watch with a mixture of fascination and skepticism the operation that captured the attention of the whole world, writes The New York Times.
The robbery, which took place last Sunday, took place on the second floor of the Parisian museum. Unidentified people broke in through a window and stole more than $100 million worth of royal jewels and diamonds — all in less than seven minutes.
“I know exactly what that adrenaline rush is like,” said Larry Lawton, 64, a former perpetrator of numerous East Coast jewelry robberies in the 1980s and 1990s, for which he served more than 11 years in federal prison. “It's all about timing. If you don't know what you're doing, you lose control.”
Lawton, associated by authorities with more than $18 million worth of stolen jewelry, learned of the burglary in the middle of the night when a friend called him from Florida. “The first thing you need to know before you rob is whether you can get away with it,” he said, recounting in his memoir Gangster Redemption his journey from criminal to lecturer and advocate for criminal justice reform.
He explains that he used to scrutinize jewelry stores, identifying vulnerabilities and assessing risks. He used non-lethal weapons such as pellet guns and tied up staff with plastic collars before disappearing with the loot.
In his opinion, the perpetrators of the Louvre robbery knew exactly what they were looking for. The target was the Apollon Gallery, which houses France's crown jewels. The thieves used a truck-mounted electric ladder — a furniture lift — to reach the gallery window, which they smashed with grinders.
“I tell you frankly: there was an insider”
“I tell you honestly: there was an insider” said Lawton. “That doesn't necessarily mean the perpetrators knew him directly. It could be someone close to the museum staff — a guide, a friend — someone who knew where the collection was.”
Former British thief Joan Hannington, now 69 years old, known in the 1980s as “The Godmother” for the many diamond thefts in London, is convinced that the robbery was planned with insider help.
“It must have been an inside hand”she told the BBC from her home in West Sussex.
Hannington, whose autobiography Joan: The True Story of Britain's Most Famous Diamond Thief is due to be released in 2024, stressed that selling the stolen stones should not be a problem for the perpetrators.
The stolen collection included eight precious items: necklaces with royal sapphires and emeralds, matching earrings and a tiara worn by Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.
“They can be easily disassembled and the stones turned into rings“, she explained.
The former thief harshly criticized the French authorities and the management of the museum for not securing the jewels: “If you have so many diamonds, artifacts and don't secure them, it's a shame. They couldn't even catch the wind, let alone thieves.”
The mistakes made by thieves
Lawton, while praising the bravery of the perpetrators, also noted the mistakes made: “They abandoned gloves, a helmet, a vest — all with DNA traces. They're not professionals. They're opportunists.”
Moreover, the thieves allegedly made off with a crown made for Empress Eugénie at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. “I've robbed 25-30 jewelry stores. I've never lost a ring, let alone a 20 million crown”Lawton added.
As for his advice to the perpetrators of the robbery? “Leave France as quickly as possible. There are methods of transporting the stones without detection – some hide them in their bodies”he said.
Hannington, for her part, admitted that she used to swallow the stones with a little olive oil: “They go through the system, no trace. We're not going into details.”
And she declared herself surprised that a crown had been left behind: “A good thief is like a vacuum cleaner – he leaves no stone unturned.”
While some ex-criminals remain skeptical about the professionalism of the heist, actor George Clooney – known for his role as Danny Ocean in the Ocean's Eleven films – commented to Variety magazine that the whole episode looks straight out of a Hollywood script.
“It was terrible, but I have to admit, also impressive”he said jokingly. “As a professional film thief, I can only be proud of them.”
French police suspect complicity within the security team
The investigation into the £76m heist at the Louvre Museum takes an unexpected turn. According to sources cited by The Telegraph, French investigators would have discovered digital evidence indicating possible insider involvement — a member of the security team would have been in contact with the thieves before the attack.
The robbery, which the French press has already called “the most shameful episode in the history of the museum”, took place in a few minutes. The thieves entered and exited almost unseen, making off with eight pieces from the French crown jewels collection.
For transport, he would have used a furniture lift attached to a stolen truck from the town of Louvres, located just a few kilometers from Charles de Gaulle airport.
The damage is considered historic — some experts have symbolically compared it to the loss suffered in the Notre-Dame fire in 2019.
A gap in the surveillance system
Laurence des Cars, the director of the Louvre, admitted to a committee of the French Senate that there was no surveillance camera on the second-floor balcony where the thieves broke in.
“Unfortunately, on the Apollo Gallery side, the only camera installed faces west and does not cover the balcony where the break-in took place,” she said.
Following the incident, the museum transferred some of the most precious jewels to the Bank of France, under a strictly secret escort. The institution, located less than a kilometer from the museum, also keeps the country's gold reserves in a vault almost 30 meters underground.
DNA traces and increasingly clear suspicions
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that dozens of biological samples were identified in the gallery. “More than 150 DNA traces, fingerprints and other clues were taken — from helmets, gloves, grinders and even a vest left behind by the thieves,” she told Ouest-France.
Beccuau added that surveillance footage from Paris allowed police to track the gang on two Yamaha TMax scooters as they left the city.
For the first time, the prosecutor also admitted the hypothesis of internal complicity: “We are taking into account all the leads, including the possibility that the thieves had help from inside the museum,” she declared.
Investigators fear the jewelry may have already been destroyed — the stones removed, the metals melted, the marks erased. “We want to catch them as quickly as possible, before the assets are irretrievably lost,” said Beccuau, who added that the heavy publicity of the case “might discourage the gang from moving the stolen treasures too quickly.”
More than a hundred detectives are involved in the operation, coordinated by the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry and the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Goods.
Israeli experts co-opted into investigation
CGI Group, an Israeli private intelligence firm known for its involvement in solving the 2019 robbery of the Green Vault museum in Dresden, Germany, was also brought in to assist the French authorities.
“We have been contacted by individuals affiliated with the Louvre to assist in the identification of those involved and the recovery of the stolen property”confirmed Zvika Nave, the company's director.
Two suspects have been arrested for stealing precious French Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to French media.
Paris prosecutors said one of the men was detained as he prepared to board a flight from Charles de Gaulle airport.
The Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement that the arrests took place on Saturday evening, without specifying how many people were detained.
One of the suspects was preparing to travel to Algeria, police sources told French media, while the other was understood to be going to Mali.
The specialized police can question them for up to 96 hours.
The Paris prosecutor criticized the “premature disclosure” of information about the case, adding that it had hampered efforts to recover the jewels and find the thieves.
The thieves reportedly arrived at 09:30 (06:30 GMT), shortly after the museum opened to visitors.
The suspects arrived with a mechanical lift mounted on a vehicle to gain access to the Gallery of Apollo through a balcony located near the Seine.
Pictures from the scene showed the staircase leading to a first-floor window.
Two of the thieves entered by cutting the window with power tools.
They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and cut the glass of two display cases containing jewellery.
A preliminary report revealed that one in three rooms in the raided museum area did not have video surveillance cameras, according to French media.
French police say the thieves stayed inside for four minutes and fled on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38.
For now, the Louvre Museum has not officially commented on the information regarding the investigation. Behind the silence, however, a pressing question remains: Who opened the door from the inside?
