Nothing to See Here, Folks

“It’s more common than you think to break in during operating hours,” said Timothy Carpenter, former head of the FBI’s art crime team and managing director of Argus, a private consulting firm, regarding the timing of the break-in, shortly after the museum opened at 9:30 a.m. “That’s when the museum is most chaotic, staff are getting settled, visitors are starting to file in, people’s attention is diverted. Most importantly, once there are visitors, museums disable many of the alarms at the perimeter  so it’s a great time to exploit.”

The culprits dressed as construction workers, which allowed their ascent to the museum window to go unquestioned. The fact that their faces were covered with balaclava masks should have triggered suspicion, but did not. The thieves obviously knew exactly where they wanted to get to, indicating that it was an inside job carried out by people familiar with the site.

Two of the four thieves ascended to the Apollo Gallery in a cherry picker and cut through a window with a glass grinder. They then used the same tool to threaten guards and break into the display cases holding crowns and jewelry.

Security worked to evacuate visitors, but did not confront the perpetrators.

French police said the thieves were in the building for four minutes.

Two other members of the gang were waiting on the street and spirited their accomplices away on motorized scooters along the Seine River by 9:38 a.m.

“Pick the Impossible”

Strange as it might sound, despite the esteemed place the Louvre occupies, several factors made it a relatively easy target.

“Jewelry stores are more secure, while museums are softer targets. Break into a jewelry store, you might get shot, but that’s probably not happening if you break into a museum,” said Mr. Carpenter.

Many European museums, the Louvre included, are in buildings that are hundreds of years old. Outfitting them with modern security is costly and challenging. Besides that, their mission leaves them inherently vulnerable.

“Museums have to be inviting and have cultural educational value, you can’t do that and also expect them to be Fort Knox,” said Mr. Carpenter.

Go Big

Robbers made off with several pieces all belonging to various French queens or empresses who reigned intermittently through the  19th century when the nation alternated between monarchy, empire, republicanism, and revolution.

France’s ministry of culture said the stolen items were a tiara and brooch belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from Empress Marie Louise; a tiara, necklace and single earring from the sapphire set that belonged to Queen MarieAmélie and Queen Hortense, and a brooch known as the “reliquary brooch.”

Between them, the items are set with thousands of diamonds and other precious stones, and are collectively estimated to be worth $100 million.

The thieves either dropped or deliberately discarded a crown worn by Emperor Napoleon III’s wife — who amassed a well-known jewelry collection — which alone has more than 1300 diamonds and 50 emeralds. It was found damaged outside the museum.

Do Your Nefarious Homework Carefully

Perpetrators seem to have studied their target and found several weak points.

“They look if staff are attentive, have a clear routine, and if there’s any relaxing of standards,” said Paul Denton, a senior consultant for SRMC, a private company specializing in museum security. “They’ll also look for any noticeable devices or technology.”

The culprits likely noticed that there was only one camera near the window they broke in through, and that it was pointed away from their point of entry. At a hearing of the French Senate, the Louvre’s director said the surveillance gap delayed police knowledge of the crime.

The thieves’ construction outfits and equipment also prevented any suspicions until after the crime was committed.

“They had it very well planned out,” said Christopher Marinello, CEO of Art Recovery International. “I once recovered a stolen photograph where a bunch of guys walked into the gallery in white jackets and walked out, and no one said anything.”

Most museum robberies involve inside help from staff, contractors, or others with knowledge of security information. While the Louvre thieves possibly had an inside co-conspirator, Mr. Denton said it is not a certainty.

“If they scouted it well, they might not have needed it,” he said. “They found an easy target with goods they could easily transport away.”

Despite the dramatic appeal of imagining the robbery directed by an evil Napolean III enthusiast looking to build his illicit collection, experts are pretty sure that these thieves have little motivation besides cash.

Perhaps ironically, while the jewels’ value will drop up to 90% by breaking them down to stones and gold, it would be nearly impossible to sell them in their original form.

“They’re so well-known at this point, no one’s going to touch them,” said Mr. Marinello. “It makes sense to break them up as quickly as possible and get them cut into smaller stones that you could sell rapidly.”

Jewelers who do the cutting will likely understand that they are handling stolen goods. Yet, jewel criminals have long found a willing network of underhanded splicers in the Gulf states, New York, Antwerp, and Tel Aviv.

Due to the age of the stones, they do not have the markings most large diamonds are now embedded with. Some unique features might be recognized by jewelers approached for cutting, but afterwards, tracing the jewels could be challenging.

Finding Ambitious Friends (Fiends)

While the Louvre heist made international news, the burglary is part of a recent spate of museum and jewel thefts around Europe, mostly the work of gangs of either Middle Eastern or Eastern European origin.

Some have gained a reputation for their daring robberies.

The Remmo clan became a media curiosity in Germany after being linked to crime operations that included large-scale jewel theft. The clan’s roots are in Lebanon and Turkey, but most of its members have lived in Germany since the 1980s.

The Remmos were implicated in the 2017 theft of a huge gold coin valued at $3.6 million stolen from a Berlin museum. The coin was melted down and sold in smaller pieces. Some arrests were made, but the gold was never recovered.

Remmos were also responsible for robbing over $110 million worth of historic jewels from Dresden’s “Green Vault” museum in 2019. Most of those items were ultimately recovered.

The most notorious contemporary group of jewel thieves, the Pink Panthers, stole more than $500 million from across Europe and Asia during the course of two decades. Loosely organized, with over 800 members mostly from Balkan countries, they garnered a reputation for brazen break-ins to jewelry stores and museums.

Both the Panthers and Remmos have become less active, but a set of smaller gangs have effectively stepped into their shoes. While they sometimes target heritage items, they have little interest in their historic value.

“They’re common criminals,” said Mr. Marinello. “They want to go back to their Eastern European counties where they can buy stolen Lamborghinis and drugs, or add a fifth story onto their homes.”

Looking for Inspiration

The highest profile Louvre theft until now took place in 1911, when an employee made off with the Mona Lisa, spiriting it back to his native Italy where it was discovered two years later.

In 2010, Vjeran Tomic, the “Spider Man” of Paris scaled a museum wall to steal a set of valuable paintings. Last year, two men stole a $4.8 million golden toilet from an art exhibition at England’s Blenheim Palace.

While those crimes captured public interest, the Louvre heist seems to fit a less glorious trend sweeping western Europe, especially in France.

This past September, sets of porcelain worth millions of dollars were stolen from a museum in central France. Around the same time, thieves stole six gold nuggets from Paris’s Natural History Museum. Last week, criminals made off with over $100,000 in gold and silver coins from a small museum in northeastern France.

Trying to set records might have played a role in why thieves picked the Louvre.

“It builds street credit to be the crew that knocked off Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre,” said Mr. Carpenter. “That’s massive street credit which is important in the criminal world.”

High gold prices play a significant role in the rash of jewelry thefts, but a combination of factors have left museums vulnerable.

“There’s an epidemic going on right now in the museum community in Europe and a lot of it is because there’s not enough funding for security,” said Mr. Marinello. “Europe spent money to recover from COVID, then to deal with the immigration crisis, and to fund the war in Ukraine — there’s just not enough money to go around.”

Picking the Continent Ripe for Crime

The same economic pressures led to budget cuts in law enforcement. That, plus rising crime across western Europe, has left police overtaxed and prisons overcrowded. These factors, Marinello feels, encourages criminals to aim higher.

“I’ve had law enforcement officers tell me, ‘We’re just too busy to investigate this case’ or ‘We’re being told to cut back on prosecutions because there’s no jail space.’ Thieves take advantage of that, and start to think, ‘Gee, maybe crime could pay,’” he said.

Of the museum burglars caught in recent years, few served more than a couple of years in prison.

Another factor is that Europe’s configuration helps criminals escape justice. The EU’s Schengen zone eliminated most border crossings on the continent, but police work remains in the hands of each nation. Offenders can strike in one country and within a matter of hours cross into several others, where crossed wires and jurisdiction issues buy them time. Interpol plays a role in helping gather information about art theft and other crimes, however, the organization has no police force, and its role is limited to gathering information and coordinating commutation across borders.

Many hope that the embarrassment and national wound of the Louvre heist will move France and Europe to make changes.

Some suggest putting laws on the books that classify such thefts as cultural terrorism, which would carry stricter jail sentences.

Some also hope it will make museums realize they need to adjust to a new era of threats.

“We’ve been having frequent discussions with museum directors about the fact that the security of their collections has to have equal weight to acquisitions or public outreach,” said Mr. Carpenter. “Unfortunately, security is usually their lowest priority.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1084)