PARIS — In response to last month’s audacious theft of crown jewels, the iconic Louvre Museum is set to bolster its security infrastructure. This announcement came on Wednesday from the museum’s director, Laurence des Cars, who outlined plans to enhance surveillance and install anti-intrusion systems at the esteemed Parisian landmark.
By the close of next year, the Louvre will have approximately 100 new surveillance cameras operational, while anti-intrusion systems will begin their rollout within the next two weeks. Des Cars emphasized that these systems are designed to prevent unauthorized access to museum premises, though she refrained from divulging specific details. The goal is to ensure “complete protection of the museum’s surroundings,” she stated.
Addressing the Committee of Cultural Affairs at the National Assembly, des Cars remarked, “After the shock, after the emotion, after the assessment, it’s time for action” at the world’s most frequented museum.
These security upgrades are part of a broader strategy encompassing over 20 emergency measures. Among these is the introduction of a new position—a “security coordinator”—for which recruitment has already begun this month.
The urgency of these measures stems from the brazen heist, where criminals took less than eight minutes to breach a window in the Apollo Gallery, aided by a freight lift, and abscond with jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million).
On the day of the heist, it took thieves less than 8 minutes to force their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery with the help of a freight lift and steal the 88 million euros ($102 million) trove.
Des Cars unveiled some new details about the security breach that allowed the Oct. 19 robbery, saying the power tools used by robbers to cut through the display cases were disc cutters meant for concrete.
“It’s a method that had not been imagined at all” when the display cases in the Apollo Gallery were replaced in 2019, she said. At the time, they had been designed primarily to counter an attack from inside the museum with weapons, she added.
Footage from museum cameras show that during the robbery, the display cases “held up remarkably well and did not break apart,” she said. “Videos show how difficult it was for the thieves.”
Des Cars stressed security improvement is a priority of the decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan launched earlier this year, with an estimated cost of up to 800 million euros ($933 million), to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.
With the Louvre crumbling under the weight of mass tourism, des Cars has restricted the daily number of visitors to 30,000 in recent years.
The famed glass pyramid inaugurated in 1989 was meant to welcome about 4 millions visitors a year, she recalled. This year, already more than 8 million people visited the Louvre.
“The extensive modernization that the Louvre underwent in the 1980s is now technically obsolete, with equipment that has been overperforming for 40 years,” des Cars said.
On Monday, the Louvre announced it was temporarily closing some employee offices and one public gallery because they were structurally fragile.
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