The financial damage caused by the robbery of the crown jewels in the Louvre museum in Paris is estimated at 88 million eurosFrench prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL radio station on Tuesday. According to her, however, this estimate does not include the historical value of jewelry for France, TASR reports based on a report by the AFP and AP agencies.
The prosecutor said the sum was estimated by the museum’s curator, adding that the thieves would not have gotten the same amount if they had “a very bad idea to melt these jewels down.”
“Perhaps we can hope that they will change their minds and not destroy these jewels for no reason,” she noted. According to Beccuau, about 100 investigators are involved in the police search for suspects and jewelry.
The robbery took place on Sunday morning, when the perpetrators managed to steal eight pieces of jewelry in seven minutes “of priceless heritage value” exhibited in the Apollo Gallery. To commit the robbery, they used a forklift that they had attached to a building on the banks of the Seine river. The perpetrators are still at large.
French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed on Monday that an investigation has been launched into suspected organized theft and criminal conspiracy. The investigation is under the supervision of the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Assets (OCBC).
As a hypothesis, investigators are considering a theft on the order of a collector. In this case, the jewelry would likely remain intact, reported the news station BFM TV. According to her, however, theft is not excluded for the customer who is only interested in the financial value of precious stones and precious metals. In that case, the jewelry could be disassembled into individual parts and sold on the retail market.
Investigators are also considering the possibility of foreign interference and a destabilization plan. However, this hypothesis is not primary, especially considering the profiles of the persons detained in other recent burglaries of a similar nature in Paris museums.
It is also admitted that this is a theft committed for the benefit of organized crime – in such a case, the jewelry could subsequently be used for money laundering.
