Louvre looter suspects arrested — just in time
Paris prosecutors have announced the first arrests in connection with the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre museum, a week after the daring heist.
Source: Sky News UK
Two people have been arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels from Paris’s Louvre museum, justice and police officials say, a week after the heist stunned the world and sparked a massive manhunt.
The Paris prosecutor said investigators made arrests on Saturday night (local time).
One of the men taken into custody was at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, preparing to leave the country.
French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests and did not say whether any jewels had been recovered.
A police official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the ongoing case, told the Associated Press that two men in their 30s, both known to police, were taken into custody.
He said one of the men was arrested as he tried to board a plane bound for Algeria.
The official said one suspect was identified through DNA traces.
Beccuau said earlier this week that forensics experts were analysing 150 samples at the scene.
The men can be held in police custody up to 96 hours.
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Thieves took less than eight minutes last Sunday morning to steal jewels valued at €88 million ($157 million) from the world’s most-visited museum.
French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s façade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled.
The museum’s director called the incident a “terrible failure”.
Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests.
She rued the premature leak of the arrest details, saying it could hinder the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators”.
Beccuau said further details will be unveiled after the men’s custody period ends.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence”.
The Louvre reopened earlier this week.
Empress Eugenie’s diamond corsage bow was stolen, while her crown was dropped as the thieves fled. Photos: X
The thieves escaped with eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch.
Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch – an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship – were also part of the loot.
One piece – Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1300 diamonds – was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.
The weekend arrests came as Dutch art detective Arthur Brand – sometimes called the “Indiana Jones of the art world” – told Sky News that the stolen items were more than likely still intact.
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He said it was clear the thieves involved “were not doing their first heist”, and that French police did an “amazing job” to track down two of them.
Louvre visitors and passersby met news of the arrests with relief on Sunday.
“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it does feel a bit late, we wonder how this could even happen – but it was important that the guys were caught,” Freddy Jacquemet said.
“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” Diana Ramirez added.
“That’s what really matters.”
Lourve looting timeline:
October 10
Thieves steal a truck and basket lift from a company in the town of Louvres, north of Paris. The name has made many wonder whether it was a coincidence.
October 19
9.30am: Thieves dressed like renovation workers use the freight lift to simulate a maintenance operation at the Louvre, and two climb a ladder to reach a balcony and gain entry through a window.
9.34am: The two thieves enter the Apollo Gallery, triggering an alarm at the security control room and putting command centre members on alert.
9.35am: Using disc cutters, robbers remove the jewels from two glass display cases. Security officers make Louvre visitors evacuate and the museum manager calls police.
9:36am: A team leader at the command centre activates a special button linked to Paris police headquarters.
9.37am: A message is sent to staff requesting all the museum’s doors be closed.
9.38am: The thieves leave via the same window and flee with two others waiting for them on two scooters, leaving behind yellow jackets and other equipment, including a disc cutter. A security guard stops one thief setting fire to the truck.
Later that day: The emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1300 diamonds, is found outside the museum. The thieves left with eight other objects of inestimable historic value.
October 22
The museum reopens. Prosecutors say about 100 investigators are working on the case.
October 26
Prosecutors say two people were arrested over the theft the previous evening, including a man trying to flee the country.
-with AAP
