Louvre heist leaves behind DNA and dropped crown

The Louvre remained closed on Monday as police continued their investigation. Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

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They left the nearby 140-carat “Régent” diamond untouched, dropped a crown with more than 1,000 diamonds, and fled, abandoning a yellow vest with DNA traces — giving hope to shamefaced politicians and police that a massive security lapse won’t lead to a permanent loss.

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Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he was “hopeful that we will very quickly find the perpetrators and, above all, the stolen items.”

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At around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, two perpetrators parked a furniture hoist and set it in motion, according to Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The pair, aided by two accomplices, climbed to a first-floor window and broke into the Apollon Gallery at 9:34 a.m., threatened guards and cut their way into two display cases.

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Their haul included a tiara, a sapphire necklace and matching earrings from the collection of Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings belonging to Marie-Louise; a reliquary brooch; and a tiara and large corsage bow of Empress Eugénie. Back on the street, the gang fled on TMax scooters.

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“We failed,” Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on France Inter radio, acknowledging that the heist gives “a deplorable image of France.”

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Benjamin Camboulives, spokesman for the Alternative Police union, said Louvre security is meant to rely on video surveillance and patrols outside the museum — yet no one noticed a furniture elevator arriving on a Sunday when no work was scheduled.

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Still, Camboulives also sees hope in the robbers’ amateurism, notably their dropping of Empress Eugénie’s crown — set with 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds — during the getaway.

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The Brigade de Répression du Banditisme, a special police unit, is reviewing CCTV footage and other leads, including the vest, a blanket with DNA traces, and the furniture elevator that the gang tried — and failed — to burn.

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Inside the museum, security protocol appears to have been followed. The culture ministry said that alarms connected to police triggered when the window and display cases were broken, and the five staff members on duty focused on moving visitors to safety.

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That’s typical, according to Marc Hocquard from the UNSA police union, who says that private security agents aren’t meant to put themselves in harm’s way to prevent a heist.

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While these staff members are likely among the first to be interviewed by BRB officers, Beccuau gave some insights into the leads authorities are following.

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“Either it is an assignment from a collector, in which case if we identify this collector and sponsor, we will find the jewellery in good condition,” she said in a Sunday interview with BFM TV. “Or, as we have seen on various occasions, it is an assignment from people who have only identified the jewellery because of the stones, pearls, and rare metals they are made of.”