“A series of deficiencies y dysfunctions” influenced the robbery of the Louvre, the investigators in charge of presenting before the Senate the conclusions of the investigations administrative regulations regarding museum security.
During more than an hour of presentation, Noël Corbin, director of the General Inspection of Cultural Affairs (Igac), and Pascal Mignerey, of the Security, Protection and Audit Mission (Missa) of the Ministry of Culture, have outlined the important deficiencies suffered by the museum, especially the obsolescence of the video surveillance system, branded as “insufficient” and “old”. A lack of renewal of the system caused the camera images to arrive late at the checkpoint, causing “security guards and police to intervene.” too late to prevent the thieves from escaping.” “If it had been 30 seconds less, the agents or the police could have prevented the thieves from escaping”, Corbin insisted.
Both have also regretted the lack of cameras inside and outside the premises, noting that of the two cameras located at the scene of the robbery, only one was operational. Not only that, the report points out the inadequate mechanical safety of the perimeter openings, specifically the French window of the Apollo Gallery, which was poorly secured and had an extremely low glass resistance time.
The conclusions reaffirm what the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, he denounced at the end of October. According to Dati, there was “an underestimation” of the risks for “more than 20 years” at the Louvre and “an under-equipment” in terms of security.
The lack of information
Noël Corbin has been very critical of the lack of information exchange within the institution, noting that “this is probably the reason why the two audits – in 2017 and 2019 – were not known to the current management team of the Louvre.”
Within this lack of communication, Corbin has pointed out the significant delays in the security plan launched in 2017something that the director of the museum, Laurence des Cars, already warned after taking office. “In the forecast for 2023, it was expected to finalize the file… and publish the work contract at the end of 2023.” However, he emphasized, “the works (…) have not yet begun.”
Training of security guards
One of the aspects that generated great controversy was the leak of a video where the alleged inaction of security guards of the museum during the robbery. Regarding this, the management clarified that the security guards do not have the necessary training to “intervene” nor do they have their own equipment to do so. According to its director, Laurence Des Cars, the instructions given to staff in the event of any type of alert are based on the priority of evacuate visitorsand on this, “there was absolute success”, since no one was hurt.
For this reason, Pascal Miognerey considered during the commission that “a change could be necessary” in the training of the security guards and that “some of these staff” could be “ex-military” or be “trained to deal with hand-to-hand combat” with intruders and “prevent incidents.”
After presenting the conclusions of the two-week investigation, Guy Tubiana, police commander and museum security expert, appeared “stunned.” “If you had asked me, before these events, if the Louvre was protected, I would have said: ‘Of course,'” and he stated that “there were a series of failures that caused the catastrophe,” but he never thought that “the Louvre could have so many failures.”
Indefinite strike
Since the robbery of the century, the Louvre seems not to raise its head. At the end of November, the museum closed one of its most emblematic galleries due to the “fragility of the building”, due to fear of the roof of one of the rooms collapsing. Last week, heavy rains caused a pipe leak old age flooding the library of egyptian antiquities of the Louvre Museum and damaging 400 works.
As a consequence of the decay of one of the most important monuments in France, and the most visited in the world, the Louvre workers announced this week the start of a strike next December 15 to denounce the “degraded conditions” of the museum.
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