The French government is under increasing pressure over museum security as police continue to search for thieves who took seven minutes to steal priceless jewels from the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum.
“What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels, and give France a terrible image,” the justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, told France Inter radio on Monday.
Police were working to discover what level of organised criminals had been involved in the highly professional raid, he said. A team of 60 investigators is working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group.
A gang of four thieves used the hoist to access an outside window in full daylight when the museum was open to visitors on Sunday morning.
The men used a truck with an extendable ladder like those used by furniture movers in order to get access to the Apollon gallery, the gilded room that houses the royal collection and crown jewels. They used cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases, taking jewels from two cases in the ornate gallery that is one of the most-visited rooms in the museum. Some were dressed in hi-vis jackets like builders.
The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which – the crown of the Empress Eugénie – they dropped and damaged as they made their escape. It is covered in 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds.
Darmanin said questions could be asked about why the museum’s windows were not secured.
The far right called the theft “a humiliation” for France. “How far will the disintegration of the state go?” said the National Rally party leader, Jordan Bardella, on social media, calling the heist “an unbearable humiliation for our country”.
After several other robberies from French museums in recent months, the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, acknowledged that securing museums was a “major weak spot”.
The president, Emmanuel Macron, said on social media that everything was being done to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.
The culture ministry said security alarms had gone off when the cases were opened and museum security guards immediately enacted the security protocol. The thieves fled, leaving behind some of their equipment.
As questions were asked over whether enough had been done to secure the vast museum, which has 35,000 works on display, trade unions said that, in general, not enough investment was being made into staffing and security at French cultural venues.
“The collections aren’t safe, the visitors aren’t safe and the staff aren’t either,” Yvan Navarroa co-secretary general of the culture branch of the leftwing CGT union told France Info. He said cuts over recent years meant there was a lack of security staffing for French culture and heritage.
France Inter radio obtained a state auditor report due to published next month which criticised “considerable” and “persistent” delays in updating equipment at the Louvre and warned that security cameras were lacking in many rooms.
France Inter reported that when the Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, took over in 2021, she had asked the Paris police for a security audit. The current project for a major overhaul of the Louvre includes heightened security measures.