Louvre director offers to resign and admits jewel heist was ‘terrible failure’

The director of the Louvre has admitted a daylight raid, in which jewels worth an estimated £76m were stolen, was a “terrible failure” and has offered to resign.

“Despite our efforts, despite our hard work every day, we were defeated,” Laurence des Cars told a committee of the French Senate.

On Wednesday, the Louvre reopened for the first time since Sunday’s audacious heist at the world’s most-visited and highest-profile museums.

Thieves used a crane to access an upstairs window, smashed the glass, then made off with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels, before escaping on motorbikes.

Three days on, the jewels remain missing and the thieves are still at large.

Under pressure over a theft that has stained France’s global image, she told the committee: “We are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in.”

Despite submitting her resignation, the culture minister refused to accept it. Authorities say the thieves spent less than four minutes inside the Louvre on Sunday morning.

“We did not detect the thieves’ arrival early enough,” she said, blaming it on the fact that there were not enough cameras outside monitoring the vicinity of the museum.

The outside security cameras do not offer full coverage of the museum’s facade, she said, adding that, in particular, the window through which the thieves broke in was not monitored by CCTV.

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Ms Des Cars insisted she had repeatedly warned that the centuries-old building’s security was in a dire state.

“The warnings I had been sounding came horribly true last Sunday,” she said.

It comes just months after employees went on strike, warning of chronic understaffing and underresourcing, with too few eyes on too many rooms.

The Apollo Room, the scene of Sunday’s robbery, was still closed to visitors, with a folding screen closing off the doorway at the gallery’s entrance.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati was criticised on Tuesday after telling politicians there had been no security failings.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said roughly 100 investigators are attempting to recover the stolen items, worth an estimated €88m (£76m), and track down four suspects who have so far been identified at the scene, along with accomplices.

In January, French President Emmanuel Macron announced new measures for the Louvre, including a new command post and expanded camera grid that the culture ministry says is being rolled out.