The Paris prosecutor has said that a number of suspects have been arrested over the theft of crown jewels from Paris’s Louvre museum last weekend.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Sunday that investigators made the arrests on Saturday evening, adding that one of the men was taken into custody as he was preparing to leave the country from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.
French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. One of the suspects was apprehended around 10pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday at the airport, and the second arrested not long after in the Paris region, those sources said.
The two men were taken into police custody on suspicion of organised theft and criminal conspiracy. They could be held up to 96 hours.
Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests, which were made by investigators from the anti-gang brigade.
She regretted in her statement the premature leak of information, saying it could hinder the work of over 100 investigators “mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators".
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez also called for confidentiality while congratulating the investigators "who have worked tirelessly", in a post on X.
Heist of the century
Thieves took less than eight minutes last Sunday morning to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros at the world’s most visited museum – a crime that has shocked the world.
French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s façade in broad daylight, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled.
They fled down the ladder and sped off on scooters. They dropped a diamond and emerald crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, which was damaged and needs to be restored. But they got away with eight pieces.
The museum’s director Laurence des Cars called the incident a “terrible failure".
The brazen theft has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.
Des Cars has admitted the robbers had taken advantage of a blind spot in the security surveillance of the museum's outside walls.
But Beccuau said public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves "in Paris and in surrounding regions".
Investigators were also able to find DNA samples and fingerprints at the scene from items left behind by the robbers as they fled. As well as the dropped crown, they include gloves, a high-vis vest, a blowtorch and power tools.
'Concern for the jewellery'
The eight pieces which have not yet been recovered risk being broken apart, their precious metal settings melted down.
Nunez expressed his "concern for the jewellery" in an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche on Sunday, saying the heist appeared to have been carried out by an organised crime group but adding that "thieves are always eventually caught".
"The loot is unfortunately often stashed abroad. I hope that's not the case – I remain confident," he added.
The Louvre theft is the latest in a string of robberies targeting French museums.
Less than 24 hours after the Louvre break-in, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.
Last month, criminals broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million. A Chinese woman has been detained and charged with involvement in the theft.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on X on Friday she had requested findings from an investigation into the Louvre's security by early next week to "announce concrete measures to secure" the museum.
(with newswires)
