A film theft that has unleashed an entire political battle in France. This Wednesday, the long-awaited appearance of the director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, took place in the French Senate to give explanations about the controversial theft of the museum—which occurred last Sunday—which has unleashed a political battle in the French country due to criticism regarding the security of the facility (which has reopened its doors during this day).
The theft has not only left the most visited museum in the world without eight pieces valued at , but has also caused enormous doubts and criticism about the security that the premises maintained, since, as detailed in a preliminary report from the Court of Auditors, it has been possible to verify a “delay in the deployment of equipment intended to guarantee the protection of the museum’s works.”
Due to the criticism and the impact of the theft, the director of the Louvre herself (the first woman at the helm since its creation), has come to propose his resignation, something that the French president has rejected. Some of the keys that the president was able to give during her speech in the French Senate are that the precariousness of the facilities had already been reported previously, the request for the installation of a curator inside the museum or that “the Louvre’s alarms and videos worked.” “The agents are overwhelmed,” she added, acknowledging that ““We did not detect the arrival of the thieves early enough.” “Theft is an immense wound, we have failed,” he stressed.
The reconstruction of the events minute by minute
. That day “what all museum professionals fear morning, noon and night” happened, as the center’s director explained. It was 9:30 a.m. when a tow truck, in which the criminals were traveling, arrived next to the Louvre Museum, parked on the sidewalk. Afterwards, the thieves—who were equipped with clothing and construction items in order to camouflage themselves and appear to be doing maintenance work—came up and broke the door and window. At 09:34, as detailed by the director, the alarm detector was activated and transmitted a signal to the security post.
While the signal was being sent, the thieves entered the Apolo gallery through the hole they made, at which point an agent called the command post to report the intrusion. There were up to four security guards present at the time of the robbery. At 09:35 the evacuation of the room began and the alarms in the gallery’s showcases were activated. Half a minute later, the head of the museum’s operation called the first district police station to report the theft and ask for the authorities to intervene. At 09:36, the ‘police telesecurity’ button called the Ramses device, which was activated from the central post by a team leader. “The security protocol is followed to the letter,” defended the director.
One minute after pressing said button, the public doors and the staff reserved doors were requested to close. Barely four minutes passed after the alarm sounded, when the thieves escaped from the gallery through the same window, taking with them up to nine pieces from inside the museum. Surveillance equipment located in the vicinity and surroundings of the premises At that moment they began to pursue the criminals, who during the persecution dropped the crown of Emperor Eugenia.
The Louvre will reinforce its security in the short and long term
During the intervention of the director of the Louvre, she announced some of the proposals she offers in the face of the “obsolescence of technical equipment”, the “multiplied breakdowns in the museum” and the “inappropriateness of buildings in the face of climate change” and which will be put into action “from today”. They will be divided into two types: those that can be applied in the short term and those that can be applied in the long term.
In the first area, it is planned to reinforce security around the Louvre, for example with distancing devices so that vehicles do not park within the museum facilities. Also planned is the creation of a police station within the museum, Well, as the director of the center has highlighted, it is a “city within a city” (due to its extension and size).
In the long term measures The ‘New Renaissance Louvre’ stands out, a plan that will double the number of cameras in the 37 hectares of the enclosure, which will modernize access through identification cards and which plans to create a new security system at the checkpoints to be able to carry out an “exhaustive” control, among other measures.
