The security system at the Louvre Museum is “very inadequate” and didn’t capture the break-in at all because the lone camera in the area was looking the other way, museum director Laurence des Cars told the French Senate on Wednesday.
“Despite our efforts and our work, we were defeated” said Laurence des Cars, the director of the Louvre Museum, as she addressed the Senate on Wednesday at a special meeting to get answers on last week’s extraordinary theft of historic jewels from the national collection.
Explaining the situation with security cameras, des Cars stated she had identified a “worrying situation of museum security” upon taking up her post as director in 2021 and launched a modernisation policy. But it appears the lag-time between beginning the address the issue and upgrades actually happening was too great, and work to implement that policy isn’t even due to begin until next year, and won’t be complete until 2033.
As for what’s been happening in the meantime, des Cars said since she became director 134 new digital security cameras had been installed to supplement or replace the old-style analogue cameras inside the rooms of the museum, watching the space close to the exhibits.
Yet as is now admitted by the director, the real security crisis was outside the building, which appears to have been near totally unwatched. Des Cars acknowledged this security aspect was “very inadequate” and the sole security camera in the vicinity of the burglary didn’t even cover the balcony used by the thieves to gain access to the building, reports Le Figaro.
Indeed, the parking of the stolen works truck and the use of its mounted telescopic basket used to carry the thieves up from street level to the upper storey windows wasn’t observed by museum security at all because that lone “ageing” camera was pointing the other way. The fact the alarms were finally triggered when the thieves started cutting through the glass shows that what security was actually installed at the world’s largest museum did work as intended, she said.
Even on the matter of security cameras, there was an element of buck-passing underway this week. President Emmanuel Macron’s culture minister Rachida Dati, who received and rejected Des Cars’ offer to resign over the debacle, blamed the left-wing city government that controls Paris for the paucity of coverage. The city administration has resisted increasing the number of security cameras in public places, she said.
As for the future, the director assureds the Senate there would be new cameras in future, but nevertheless acknowledged “we are of course far from the target” .
Short-term solutions to shore up museum security suggested by the director to the Senate on Wednesday included installing a small police station within the museum itself, and “securing the immediate surroundings of the Louvre”. Visitors to most Western cities will already be familiar with the “distancing devices” to prevent more crane-armed trucks driving up to the Louvre as the now near-ubiquitous anti-terrorism blocks.
Yet the meeting was not all bad news. Des Cars gave an update on the sole piece of stolen history that has been recovered: the crown of Empress Eugenie that the thieves dropped as they got away.
The historic crown was “quite damaged” by being pulled out of the case, she said, but stated the position of museum experts that it can be restored. The director said: “The art department recovered the piece yesterday. A delicate restoration is possible, even if we still have to be careful. But it is an object that can be saved from this disaster”.
Whether any of the other pieces will ever be seen again is an open question. French police have said little to nothing of having leads to follow and art experts fear the historic items are so distinctive they would be impossible to sell, making breaking them apart for raw materials the most likely fate. Senator Laurent Lafon, the president of the French Culture Commission sat besides Des Cars on Wednesday and said of this: “Of course, this loot would be difficult to resell as is.
“However, there is a risk that the stones and precious metals that compose them will be dismantled, re-cut and sold separately, which would represent a definitive catastrophe from a heritage point of view… The extreme seriousness of this burglary and the apparent ease with which it was carried out are deeply troubling and raise questions on our part”.
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