Louvre director admits 'insufficient' camera coverage after heist

9:51 am on 23 October 2025

By Erin Flanagan, Alice Hackman and Jerome Rivet, AFP

$France, Paris, 2025-10-22. Many people come to take photos of the broken display case where the theft took place. On Sunday, 10 October 2025, four criminals stole priceless jewellery while the museum was open. With 10 million visitors, the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. Photograph by Eric Broncard/Hans Lucas France, Paris, 2025-10-22. De nombreuses personnes viennent prendre en photo la baie fracturee par ou a eu lieu le vol. Le dimanche 10 octobre 2025, 4 malfaiteurs ont derobe, pendant l’ouverture du musee, des bijoux d’une valeur inestimable. Avec ces 10 millions de visiteurs, le Louvre est le musee le plus visite au monde. Photographie par Eric Broncard/Hans Lucas (Photo by Eric Broncard / Hans Lucas via AFP)$

Many people are coming to the Louvre to take photos of the area where the theft took place. Photo: AFP / Eric Broncard

The director of the Louvre admitted there was inadequate security camera coverage of the outside walls of the museum, three days after a brazen daytime heist stunned the French capital.

Senators grilled Laurence des Cars over how thieves were able to make off with an estimated €88 million (NZ$178m) in jewels from the world-famous museum in just seven minutes on Sunday.

The heist has renewed scrutiny of security at French museums.

"Despite our efforts, despite our hard work on a daily basis, we failed," des Cars told lawmakers in her first public statement since Sunday.

Des Cars said all alarms had functioned during the burglary, but admitted that security cameras did not adequately cover the thieves' point of entry.

"The only camera installed is directed westward and therefore did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in," she said.

"There are some perimeter cameras, but they are ageing," she conceded.

President of the Louvre Museum Laurence des Cars looks on prior to the start of a hearing before the Senate's culture committee at the French Senate in Paris on October 22, 2025. Laurence des Cars has not made any public statement since the theft on October 19, 2025. Des Cars, who became the first woman to run the Louvre in 2021, is expected to be questioned about security at the Apollo Gallery, which houses the royal collection of gems. The museum on October 21, 2025 hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the stolen jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and "represented a considerable improvement in terms of security". (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

President of the Louvre Museum Laurence des Cars attends a hearing of the French Senate in Paris on October 22, 2025. Photo: AFP / Bertrand Guay

Surveillance of the museum's outside walls "is highly insufficient".

But she defended the museum's €80m security plan, disputing a recent report that cited "persistent delays" in putting it into effect.

Earlier on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the "speeding up" of security measures at the Louvre, after the Paris museum reopened its doors to tourists.

Des Cars said she had tendered her resignation on Sunday after the theft, but that the culture ministry had refused it.

Museum-goers flocked to the institution for the 9am opening, though the Apollo Gallery, the scene of Sunday's theft, remained closed.

'Find the perpetrators'

The thieves made off with eight pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2000 diamonds.

(FILES) This photograph shows "Collier et boucles d'oreilles de la parure d’émeraudes de l'impératrice Marie-Louise" (necklace and earrings of the set of jewelry of Empress Marie-Louise) displayed at Apollon's Gallery on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris after the reopening of the Gallery following ten months of renovations. Thieves raided Paris's Louvre museum in broad daylight on October 19, 2025, taking just seven minutes to grab some of France's priceless crown jewels, but dropping a gem-encrusted crown as they fled, officials and sources said. "Two high-security display cases were targeted, and eight objects of invaluable cultural heritage were stolen," said the ministry statement. They included the emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise, and the crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

A necklace and earrings of the set of jewellery of Empress Marie-Louise. Photo: Stephane de Sakutin

The investigation "is progressing", Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media on Wednesday, saying "more than 100 investigators" had been mobilised.

"I have full confidence, that's for sure, that we will find the perpetrators," he said.

Calling the financial loss "extraordinary", Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the greater damage was to France's historical heritage.

The world's most visited museum, whose extensive collection includes the Mona Lisa, last year welcomed nine million people to its extensive hallways and galleries.

Three police officers in front of the Louvre Museum, tasked with monitoring the security perimeter established after the burglary of Napoleon's jewels at the museum, which had to be closed in Paris on October 19, 2025.
Trois policiers devant le Musee du Louvre charges de surveiller le perimetre de securite etabli apres le cambriolage de bijoux de Napoleon survenu au musee qui du etre ferme a Paris le 19 octobre 2025. (Photo by Quentin de Groeve / Hans Lucas via AFP)

Police officers outside the Louvre on the day of the robbery. Photo: QUENTIN DE GROEVE

Gold coins stolen

The Louvre theft is the latest in a string of robberies targeting French museums, raising questions about security at the country's cultural institutions.

Union representative Christian Galani, who works at the Louvre, said the museum does not have enough security guards after job cuts over the past 15 years, even as visitor numbers have jumped.

"You can walk through several areas without seeing a single guard," he said.

A French art specialist told AFP on the condition of anonymity that in 2024 they were able to get close enough to a work by Italian Renaissance painter Raphael to touch it "without any alarm going off or a curator calling out to me".

Less than 24 hours after the high-profile break-in, a museum in eastern France dedicated to Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.

Just last month, criminals broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than $NZ2.6m.

Also last month, thieves stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in the central city of Limoges, with the losses estimated at $13.2m.

But thefts from the Louvre have been rarer.

In 1911, an Italian stole the Mona Lisa, but the painting was recovered and today sits behind security glass.

-AFP