Police make arrests in Louvre robbery

Authorities decline to note number of suspects in custody after heist

A police car parks in the courtyard of the Louvre museum, one week after the robbery, Sunday in Paris. The Paris prosecutor said on Sunday that a number of suspects have been arrested over the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre museum last weekend. Thomas Padilla — ASSOCIATED PRESS

Image

By Aurelien Breeden

New York Times

PARIS — Police have made arrests in the brazen jewelry heist last week at the Louvre Museum in Paris, French authorities said Sunday, without specifying how many people had been taken into custody.

The robbery, which stunned France, was carried out by four people. Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said in a statement that the arrests were made Saturday evening and that one man was taken into custody at the Charles de Gaulle Airport as he was trying to leave the country.

It was not immediately clear whether police had recovered any of the stolen jewelry, which is worth more than $100 million and includes gem-studded royal tiaras, necklaces and earrings dating to the 19th century.

The arrests were a major breakthrough for French investigators, who are racing to find the thieves before the jewelry is dismantled and the rare stones and metals can be sold or melted down, as many experts fear they will be.

The robbery in broad daylight at the Louvre has put an uncomfortable spotlight on security lapses at the famous museum.

Laurence des Cars, the head of the Louvre, acknowledged during a tense Senate hearing last week that much of the museum’s security system was badly outdated and that the only exterior camera near where the thieves broke in was facing away from them.

That cost authorities precious minutes in their response time to the heist, which lasted less than 10 minutes.

The thieves, posing as workers, had used a truck-mounted device to reach the second floor before breaking through a window with power tools and clambering into the Louvre’s gilded Apollo Gallery. There, they cut through reinforced glass display cases and grabbed eight precious crown jewels, before speeding away on motor scooters.

The arrests were first reported by French news media citing anonymous sources, apparently catching authorities by surprise.

“I deeply regret the hasty disclosure of this information,” Beccuau said in her statement. She said that the leaked information would hinder “the 100 or so investigators who mobilized in the search for both the stolen jewelry and for all of the criminals.”

Beccuau said she would provide more information only after police finished questioning the suspects.