Experts Fear Louvre Jewels Are Lost Forever

A Paris prosecutor said Tuesday that crown jewels stolen in a dramatic weekend Louvre heist were worth an estimated 88 million euros, or $102 million, but that the monetary estimate doesn't include their historical value to France. Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is leading the investigation, said about 100 investigators are now involved in the police hunt for the suspects and gems after Sunday's theft from the world's most-visited museum.

• "The wrongdoers who took these gems won't earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels," she said in an interview with broadcaster RTL. "We can perhaps hope that they'll think about this and won't destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason."
• Experts say her fears are well-founded and the jewels are likely being secretly dismantled and sold off in a rush as individual pieces that may or may not be identifiable as part of the French crown jewels, the AP reports. "It's extremely unlikely these jewels will ever be retrieved and seen again," said Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, a major European diamond jeweler, said in a statement. "If these gems are broken up and sold off, they will, in effect, vanish from history and be lost to the world forever."

• France's culture minister said that the security apparatus installed at the Louvre worked properly during the theft. Questions have arisen about the Louvre security—and whether security cameras might have failed after thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder outside the Louvre, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels on Sunday morning.
• "The Louvre museum's security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact," the minister, Rachida Dati, told lawmakers in the National Assembly. "The Louvre museum's security apparatus worked." She did not offer any details about how the thieves managed to carry out their heist given that the cameras were working. But she described it as a painful blow for the nation. The robbery was "a wound for all of us," she said. "Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world's largest museum. It's a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony."
• The museum responded to criticism Tuesday that the glass cases were too fragile, saying an upgrade in 2019 "represented a considerable improvement in terms of security," Le Monde reports.

• Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre. Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's second wife; a reliquary brooch; and Empress Eugénie's diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
• Unions have complained that the museum, which remained closed on Tuesday, cut security jobs even while attendance was soaring, reports Le Monde.