Louvre robbed by petty criminals, not professionals – Paris prosecutor

The robbery of the Louvre in Paris, one of the largest and most famous museums in the world, was carried out by petty thieves, not professionals from the world of organized crime, said the prosecutor of the French capital, Laure Beccuau. The official's words in an interview with franceinfo radio were reported by Reuters.

Sunday morning, on October 19, two men parked a car with a lift near the Louvre, climbed to the second floor, broke a window, broke the display cases with grinders, and then fled on scooters driven by two accomplices. In total, the robbery lasted less than seven minutes.

"This is not quite everyday delinquency... but it is a type of delinquency that we do not generally associate with the upper echelons of organised crime," Beccuau said.

She added that the four people arrested in this case so far are not typical of professional members of organized crime capable of conducting complex operations.

"These are clearly local people. They all live more or less in Seine-Saint-Denis," the prosecutor said. This is a neighborhood in the north of Paris with a low income among its residents.

The French media suggested that the robbers were amateurs, as they lost the most valuable of the jewels, Empress Eugenie's crown made of gold, emeralds and diamonds, and left tools and other items at the crime scene and did not set fire to the truck before leaving.

Beccuau said that at least one other person is wanted for the robbery and did not rule out the possibility that there could have been other accomplices.

The prosecutor also said that a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, who had been charged the day before, were in a relationship and had children together. Earlier, during the trial, the suspect said in tears that she was afraid for her children and herself.

The aforementioned suspect and one of the two defendants detained earlier were convicted of one robbery in 2015; in total, the man had 11 convictions for various crimes, including traffic violations, aggravated theft, and an attempt to break into an ATM, the official added.

Beccuau noted that the defendant was likely a member of the four-person group that robbed the Louvre, based on DNA traces found in the truck. It also contained traces of a woman, but the prosecutor noted that they were probably transferred to the car, possibly through a person or object that later ended up in the car.

The man is suspected of organized theft and criminal conspiracy, the woman is suspected of complicity.

• The newspaper Le Parisien showed photos of the stolen jewelry. RTL Radio estimates that the value of these jewels is 88 million euros.
• The French Ministry of Culture has announced that the country will not receive payments for the jewelry stolen from the Louvre, as they were not insured by a private policy.
• The Paris prosecutor stated that as part of the investigation, the investigation managed to obtain eyewitness testimony.
• RTL's interlocutors reported that after the theft, part of the jewelry collection was transported to the Bank of France's underground vault.