The Louvre reopens 3 days after French crown jewel heist

[ad_1] PARIS (AP) — The Louvre reopened on Wednesday to lengthy strains beneath its landmark Paris glass pyramid, simply three days after one of many highest-profile museum thefts of the century shocked the world for its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped out and in of the world’s most visited museum — making off with eight items from France’s Crown Jewels — a cultural wound that some officers in comparison with the burning of Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019.

The Sunday raid — steps from the Mona Lisa and valued at over $100 million — has put embattled President Emmanuel Macron and Louvre chief Laurence des Vehicles beneath contemporary scrutiny. It comes simply months after a staff strike warned of chronic understaffing and under-resourced protections, with too few eyes on too many rooms, elevating pointed questions on safety failures.

Crowds bunched on the boundaries as they had been being eliminated Wednesday, a coda to frantic forensic work and workers briefings that had taken place. Inside, the scene of the crime — the Apollo Gallery housing the Crown Diamonds — stayed sealed, a folding display screen obscuring the doorway on the gallery’s rotunda entrance.

Disbelief amongst Paris museum guests Three days on, the stolen jewels stay lacking and the thieves are nonetheless at giant.

“For a spot just like the Louvre, it’s unfathomable,” mentioned Amanda Lee, 36, an artwork instructor from Chicago. “I heard it took beneath 4 minutes — how is that doable right here, with no police in sight?”

Others on the museum appeared unfazed on Wednesday.

“We instructed the youngsters it’s a historical past lesson — the Apollo Room is shut, however we noticed all of the masterpieces,” mentioned Claire Martin, 41, a French lawyer from Versailles who was visiting together with her two youngsters on half-term break.

“We got here for the artwork,” she mentioned. “The police can cope with the thieves.”

France acknowledges failings Authorities say the thieves spent lower than 4 minutes contained in the Louvre on Sunday morning: a freight raise was wheeled to the Seine-facing façade, a window was pressured open and two vitrines had been smashed.

Then got here the getaway on motorbikes via central Paris. Alarms had gone off drawing brokers to the gallery and forcing the intruders to bolt.

“We've failed,” Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin mentioned, noting that the power to plant a freight raise undetected on a public approach initiatives “a really detrimental picture of France.”

Because it reopened, the Louvre declined questions from The Related Press to element any strengthened protocols. It mentioned no uniformed police had been posted within the corridors. With faculty holidays swelling demand, the day was absolutely booked and entry restricted in locations.

“I didn’t discover additional safety — guards as all the time, and no police inside. It felt like a standard day,” mentioned Tomás Álvarez, 29, a software program engineer from Madrid.

Wednesday’s opening adopted a routine closure on Tuesday, a day when the museum is often shut.

The loot The thieves made away with a complete of eight objects, together with a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to Nineteenth-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.

Additionally they made off with an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second spouse, in addition to reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her giant corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of uncommon craftsmanship — had been additionally a part of the loot.

One piece — the emerald-set imperial crown of Empress Eugénie, with greater than 1,300 diamonds — was later discovered outdoors the museum, broken however recoverable.

Fears the jewels will likely be destroyed Prosecutor Laure Beccuau valued the haul at about €88 million ($102 million), a “spectacular” determine that also fails to seize the works’ historic weight. She warned the thieves could be unlikely to understand something near that sum in the event that they pry out stones or soften the metals — a destiny curators concern would pulverize centuries of which means into nameless gems for the black market. The jewels stay lacking; no arrests have been introduced.

Beccuau mentioned professional analyses are underway; 4 folks have been recognized as current on the scene, and roughly 100 investigators are mapping the crew and any accomplices.

The heist has sharpened scrutiny of the museum’s safety and introduced its president-director, Laurence des Vehicles, earlier than the Senate’s tradition committee on Wednesday — although high officers have refused to take away her.

Questions on Louvre’s safety overhaul All this comes after President Emmanuel Macron’s authorities introduced new measures in January for the Louvre — full with a brand new command put up and expanded digital camera grid that the tradition ministry says is being rolled out.

It additionally raises onerous questions, together with whether or not Sunday’s breach is tied to staffing ranges, and the way uniformly the upgrades within the overhaul are being utilized.

“It’s a scandal of planning, not only one evening,” mentioned Luca Romano, 52, a civil engineer from Milan visiting Paris along with his spouse. “When you can plant a freight raise at a palace and nobody stops you, that’s a system failure.”

Safety for headline works is hermetic — the Mona Lisa is behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled case — but the break-in uncovered seams elsewhere in a 33,000-object labyrinth. For a lot of French, the distinction is a public embarrassment on the landmark.

There may be one other uncooked nerve: the difficulty of swelling crowds and overstretched workers.

A June workers walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing delayed opening. Unions argue that mass tourism leaves too few eyes on too many rooms and creates stress factors the place building zones, freight entry and customer flows intersect.

On Wednesday, the Louvre’s different star sights — from the Venus de Milo to the Winged Victory of Samothrace — had been open once more. However the cordoned-off vitrines within the Apollo Room, guarded and empty, instructed a special story: one in all a breach measured not simply in minutes and euros, however within the fragility of a nation’s patrimony.

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