Louvre director details security improvement plans following $102 million jewel heist

[ad_1] The director of the Louvre in Paris addressed on Wednesday a brand new safety breach on the museum whereas detailing plans underway to overtake the power's safety system within the wake of final month's $102 million jewel heist.

Laurence des Automobiles, president and director of the Louvre, appeared earlier than the Nationwide Meeting Tradition Affairs Committee and was grilled a couple of new safety breach that occurred on the museum final week.

Lawmakers requested the director how two Belgian influencers have been in a position to cling a portrait of themselves on Friday in a gallery housing Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa portray.

Louvre Museum President and Director Laurence des Automobiles (C) seems on as she testifies earlier than the Nationwide Meeting Cultural Affairs Committee in Paris, November 19, 2025.

Bertrand Guay/AFP through Getty Photos

Saying she wished to "put issues in perspective," des Automobiles stated the safety breach was certainly one of a string of incidents which have plagued the 232-year-old museum through the years.

"We continuously have incidents within the Louvre's galleries. Two years in the past, it was activists," des Automobiles, referring to environmental activists who hurled soup on work, a tactic different museums around the globe have skilled.

She stated the brand new safety equipment being carried out on the museum will assist workers head off such incidents sooner or later, together with the set up of what she described as anti-intrusion programs.

Des Automobiles stated a serious safety enchancment would be the development of a police station on the grounds of the Louvre.

$102 million in jewels stolen from Louvre

Louvre Museum

The director stated the police station is amongst greater than 20 "emergency measures" that will likely be put in place "within the coming days."

She stated the safety measures can even embrace the set up of 100 new safety cameras on the Louvre, together with cameras to observe the perimeter of the museum that have been severely missing through the Oct. 19 jewel heist.

The creation of a safety coordinator place can be a part of the safety increase, des Automobiles stated. She additionally stated two galleries that have been lately closed will get a safety improve earlier than they reopen.

Regulation enforcement sources verify to ABC Information, October 23, 2025, that they're conscious of a video taken by Louvre safety exhibiting two thieves exiting the famed Paris museum on a truck-mounted cherry picker with jewels stolen from the Apollo Gallery.

Aquired by ABC Information

Des Automobiles stated the "appalling irony of the state of affairs" is that the Louvre jewel heist occurred as lots of the safety enhancements have been being made. She stated that between 2022 and 2025, 134 digital cameras have been put in all through the museum as a part of a $933 million "Louvre New Renaissance" plan.

"I wish to instill a real safety tradition," stated des Automobiles, including that she has been calling for the safety upgrades since she grew to become the museum's director in 2022.

Because the theft on the Louvre, a number of safety points have emerged, highlighting considerations concerning the world's most visited museum.

Among the many revelations was {that a} single perimeter safety digital camera outdoors the Louvre was not dealing with the Apollo Gallery, the place the robbers used a truck-mounted mechanical cherry picker to achieve the gallery and energy instruments to chop their manner in. Earlier this month, a museum worker with data of the safety system revealed that the password for the museum's video surveillance system was merely "Louvre."

Suspects charged in Louvre Case

Paris Public Prosecutor, Adobe

On Monday, the Louvre introduced {that a} public gallery and a number of other places of work have been being quickly closed as a result of they'd turn out to be structurally fragile.

4 suspects have been arrested and charged within the October theft, however the eight items of the French crown jewel assortment swiped from the Apollo Gallery haven't been recovered, authorities stated.

French investigators stated the jewel heist from begin to getaway took seven minutes.

Prosecutors haven't dominated out making extra arrests within the case, however stated investigators have but to seek out any proof implicating members of the museum workers within the theft.