Paris's Louvre Museum is set to implement significant security upgrades following last month's audacious crown jewels heist, its director announced.
Laurence des Cars confirmed on Wednesday that approximately 100 new surveillance cameras will be operational by the end of next year.
Anti-intrusion systems, designed to deter individuals from approaching the museum buildings, are slated for installation within the next two weeks, though specific details remain undisclosed.
Ms des Cars stated the new cameras aim to ensure "complete protection of the museum’s surroundings."
"After the shock, after the emotion, after the assessment, it's time for action” at the world's most visited museum, des Cars told the Committee of Cultural Affairs of the National Assembly.
She said it was all part of more than 20 emergency measures that will be implemented. The new measures also include the creation of a “security coordinator” position at the museum, and the job has been posted this month, she added.
On the day of the heist, it took thieves less than 8 minutes to force their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery with the help of a freight lift and steal the 88 million euros ($102 million) trove.
Des Cars unveiled some new details about the security breach that allowed the Oct. 19 robbery, saying the power tools used by robbers to cut through the display cases were disc cutters meant for concrete.
“It's a method that had not been imagined at all” when the display cases in the Apollo Gallery were replaced in 2019, she said. At the time, they had been designed primarily to counter an attack from inside the museum with weapons, she added.
Footage from museum cameras show that during the robbery, the display cases “held up remarkably well and did not break apart,” she said. “Videos show how difficult it was for the thieves.”
Des Cars stressed security improvement is a priority of the decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan launched earlier this year, with an estimated cost of up to 800 million euros ($933 million), to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.
With the Louvre crumbling under the weight of mass tourism, des Cars has restricted the daily number of visitors to 30,000 in recent years.
The famed glass pyramid inaugurated in 1989 was meant to welcome about 4 millions visitors a year, she recalled. This year, already more than 8 million people visited the Louvre.
“The extensive modernization that the Louvre underwent in the 1980s is now technically obsolete, with equipment that has been overperforming for 40 years,” des Cars said.
On Monday, the Louvre announced it was temporarily closing some employee offices and one public gallery because they were structurally fragile.
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