Officials have indicated that the perpetrators behind the audacious theft of invaluable jewelry from the Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the most daring museum heists recently, might have been commissioned by a private collector.
As authorities continue their efforts to identify the burglars, prosecutors announced on Monday that a bottle of liquid and other equipment were left at the scene and are currently undergoing examination. The office added that all investigative leads remain open.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccau informed local media that investigators suspect the robbers, who executed the raid in broad daylight on Sunday within just seven minutes, could have been hired by a collector or simply motivated by the inherent value of the jewels and precious metals, as reported by Reuters.
“We are examining the possibility of ,” Beccau stated on BFM TV, noting that the thieves could be professional operators working on spec for a potential buyer.
Beccau further added that if a collector did commission the heist, there is a hopeful expectation that the stolen pieces will remain undamaged and well-preserved until their recovery, the outlet reported. Conversely, if the thieves acted on their own initiative, they might have targeted the jewels for their potential use in money laundering activities.
“Currently, anything can be connected to , given the substantial amounts of money derived from drug trafficking,” Beccau reportedly told Reuters.
Investigators are pursuing all potential leads, but reports suggest that foreign interference in the case has largely been dismissed.
Larry Lawton, a former jewel thief who now assists police in such investigations, told that the operation “had to be an inside job” or the thieves must have “possessed inside information.”
“How were they aware of the glass’s thickness, or whether an alarm was installed?” Lawton inquired.
Lawton also advised that if he were the thieves, he would not immediately sell the items to evade detection.
“I would likely hide them away in an unknown location for a year or two,” Lawton remarked, adding that companies would eventually offer a reward “with no questions asked.”
“They will certainly offer a significant sum, perhaps a million dollars, for these… clearly, they want their jewels recovered,” he stated.
The Louvre, recognized as the globe’s most frequented museum, declared its closure for Monday in the aftermath of Sunday’s .
Authorities reported that masked individuals, posing as construction workers, carried out the heist on Sunday morning amidst visitors and staff, a period described as one of the museum’s most chaotic. Officials indicated the thieves deployed a basket lift to reach a window, breaking it open with an angle grinder. They allegedly then employed a disc cutter to cut through the protective glass panes encasing the jewels.
Officials confirmed that nine items were targeted, with eight successfully stolen. failed to take the ninth item, Empress Eugenie’s crown (the wife of Napoleon III), during their getaway.
Experts estimate the crown’s value at tens of millions of euros, although they do not consider it the most historically significant item.
The identities of the robbers, who fled on motorbikes, remain unknown to authorities.