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'It's a joke': Anger grows as Louvre's security gaps are revealed in wake of burglary

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

French police are still looking for the culprits two days after thieves stole millions of dollars' worth of jewels in a brazen daytime heist at the world's most-visited art museum.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Meanwhile, shock is turning to anger as the French discover the huge gaps in security at their beloved Louvre Museum.

MARTIN: We go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley to hear more. Eleanor, good morning.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.

MARTIN: Would you just remind us of what happened? I mean, this - jeez, it sounds like a movie.

BEARDSLEY: Yeah, it does. Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. in broad daylight, a moving truck with a ladder on the back pulled up to a sidewalk next to a wing of the museum. Two men climbed up to the second-floor balcony and pried open the window to enter the gallery. Now, they were not wearing masks and catsuits. They had on yellow reflective vests. They were disguised to look like ordinary maintenance workers. And once inside, a Louvre worker actually filmed the back of one of the men, and he was cutting open one of the glass cases with a round electric saw. The men stole the royal jewels - crowns, tiaras, necklaces - mostly from the 19th-century era of Emperor Napoleon III. They came out the same window and sped away on scooters driven by their accomplices, who were waiting for them.

MARTIN: Do the police, do the authorities have any idea who this might be?

BEARDSLEY: No, no idea who did it. Last night, the prosecutor put out a statement and said nothing is being ruled out. They do think it was a well-organized gang. There could be foreign interference. Possibly someone very rich could have ordered the heist. Likely not because these jewels cannot be displayed or resold in their original form. They're too recognizable. But time is of the essence here because the thieves will likely dismantle them, melt down the gold and sell everything separately, and a part of French history and culture will be lost forever.

MARTIN: So what do we know about how this happened, I mean, about the security at the museum?

BEARDSLEY: Well, we're finding out just how lacking the security is at the world's most-visited art museum. According to a French government internal report out last year, the museum was way behind on things like video surveillance. For example, more than half the rooms in some of the most-visited wings have no video surveillance at all. Also, there was a question about the alarm of the wing broken into. It went off, but not when they broke in. It was as they were leaving. And by the way, the job took less than eight minutes. And there's growing anger in France because people feel violated. These jewels belong to all the French people. And here is Pierre-Jean Chalencon. He's a top Napoleonic-era collector himself, who knew these jewels well.

PIERRE-JEAN CHALENCON: No security. No policeman. No camera. It's a joke. It's really a joke. And I think the director and the people in charge of the Louvre Museum should get out of the job.

MARTIN: So I take it the museum is closed. Any idea when it will reopen?

BEARDSLEY: It is closed. I was out there yesterday, and there were still hundreds of people trying to, like, look around and see - looking at that window and everything, which is boarded up. It's likely to open tomorrow, and that's also when the head of the Louvre will be grilled by a Senate commission on culture presided by centrist Senator Laurent Lafon. And here he is speaking on the radio this morning.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LAURENT LAFON: (Speaking French).

BEARDSLEY: He said "we need explanations on what happened. Did the alarm go off? Were there video cameras? How long did it take Louvre personnel to react?" You know, there's a lot of scrutiny about Louvre security guards and personnel, though their first job is to protect the public and get them out of harm's way, which they did. The employees actually went on strike last year over poor working conditions. And this year, in January, Macron announced a huge upgrade of the Louvre to make it, you know, modern, in line with security and, you know, international tourism and to give the "Mona Lisa" its own room, but that won't begin that work until 2031. How do we protect these precious artworks until then?

MARTIN: That is NPR's Eleanor Beardsley. Eleanor, thank you.

BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Eleanor Beardsley began reporting from France for NPR in 2004 as a freelance journalist, following all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy. Since then, she has steadily worked her way to becoming an integral part of the NPR Europe reporting team.
Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.