Live Reporting
Edited by Emily McGarvey and Emily Atkinson
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Glaring security failing – wall covered by sole camera pointing wrong waypublished at 17:29 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor
Image source, DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFPImage caption, The lorry and ladder used by the gang was abandoned as they fled
Some of the senators in this hearing have expressed their incredulity at the limited and outdated security at the Louvre.
Why was there just one camera on the external wall facing the river, and why was it pointing the wrong way?
That single failure meant that the lorry carrying the gang and their mechanical ladder was not spotted at all as it arrived at the foot of the Gallery of Apollo.
“There is a weakness at the Louvre and I acknowledge it completely,” Laurence des Cars told the senators. “We have a weakness in our perimeter coverage.”
Before she took up her post in 2021, she even says no decision had been taken to install any external cameras.
Nobody expects or wants museum guards to be armed, but if a camera had picked up the gang that attacked the Louvre before their ladder had been raised to the balcony on the ground floor, perhaps police might have arrived in the minutes it took them to break in.
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Louvre director continues to take questions on jewel heistpublished at 17:21 BST
French senators are continuing to put their questions to Louvre director Laurence des Cars, after jewellery worth €88m (£76m; $102m) was stolen in a brazen daylight robbery on Sunday.
In the last few moments, she’s been asked whether there was a chance that some jewels could be retrieved, what the security measures were around the windows, and if security guards at the museum should be armed.
Stay with us for continued coverage of the hearing, which you can watch live with an English translation above.
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Many will feel sympathetic to des Cars’ impassioned defencepublished at 17:13 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor
Image source, ReutersLaurence des Cars became animated, even indignant, as she defended herself from media allegations that she prioritised her own comfort ahead of protecting the Louvre and its historic collections.
She speaks of being hurt by accusations of splashing the cash.
The museum chief said she took responsibility and tendered her resignation and felt the level of attacks on her was unfair.
“I made the security masterplans the priority of my term in office,” she insisted, describing her shock at seeing the state of the museum’s security when she started.
Her defence was that she was just a civil servant doing her duty.
Many in France will feel sympathetic to her impassioned defence. But unlike her predecessors, Laurence des Cars was the Louvre director who was in charge when the museum was attacked in such a shocking and dramatic manner.
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Police called five minutes after thieves arrived, says security chiefpublished at 17:05 BST
Image source, ReutersDominique Buffin, the Louvre security chief, is addressing the procedure for alerting the police.
She says there are two options available to the central command room:
- A dedicated phone line to Paris police
- Pressing a security button (Buffin says this option doesn’t give any information on the location of the issue)
She says that as the first alarm sounded on Sunday, staff in the control room located the break-in and began looking at the video feeds.
They then began to receive radio calls reporting the events and called the police station at 09:35 local time.
It wasn’t until after they hung up that they pressed the security button, she adds.
- Some context: The thieves arrived at 09:30 local time, shortly after the museum opened its doors to visitors. By 09:38, they had already made their way back out onto the pavement before they made their escape on scooters waiting outside
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Security issues have been absolute priority, says directorpublished at 16:56 BST
Des Cars is now asked why none of her predecessors raised concerns around the video surveillance of the Louvre’s exterior.
In response, Des Cars says she can only speak from the point of a decision taken in September 2021 to ensure a focus on technical issues around security.
She reiterates issues of security have been “an absolute priority”.
Asked again if there were interventions from her predecessors, she replies: “I can only observe, like you do, that those decisions had not been taken.”
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Des Cars says she acted as ‘whistle-blower’ for Louvre security issuespublished at 16:51 BST
Des Cars says she’s spoken about the issue of security repeatedly in the past.
“I am wounded as chair and director that the warnings I was raising – as a whistle-blower, in a sense – have come to pass last Sunday,” she says.
“We’ve had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I’ve taken responsibility for it,” she adds.
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Louvre director signals ‘change’ in threats on museumpublished at 16:48 BST
Image source, ReutersBack now to Louvre director Laurence Des Cars, who is detailing the kinds of incidents that the Louvre had made preparations for in recent years.
These include attacks with firearms, and climate activists throwing soup or paint over artworks, she says.
Des Cars says attention turned over the last few months protecting precious metals, jewellery and stones. “We are seeing a change in the type of attacks,” she says.
She blames “chronic under investment in equipment and infrastructure” for weaknesses at the Louvre.
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Work on biggest Louvre wing will cost €12m, managing director sayspublished at 16:38 BST
Shortly before the Louvre director confirmed that she had offered her resignation, we heard from one of her colleagues.
Francis Steinbock, managing director of the Louvre, tells the committee he was shocked when he visited the five security control rooms and the central control room.
He says there are issues with the Louvre’s “entire infrastructure, digital technology tools and cameras”.
“All of the hardware is at stake,” he says, adding that a job for a technical project manager will be created to help deal with this.
Given last Sunday’s incident, we need to focus on perimeter protection, then we’ll work wing by wing at the museum, he adds.
He says the work on the biggest wing will cost €12m (£10m), and the other wings will cost between €6-9m (£5-8m).
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Des Cars hits out at ‘personal attacks’ after robberypublished at 16:34 BST
More on that breaking line now.
One of the members of the senate des Cars’ offer to resign was “honourable”, though ultimately rejected.
Who will now be held accountable and how, she’s asked.
“I’ve never considered that we own the jobs we have… I don’t want to go back to the personal attacks in the media,” des Cars replies.
“All I can do is observe how information is being manipulated from a political point of view. I’m a victim of that and it’s very painful,” she says.
Another senate member says they hope the committee will get the chance to question Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister, as many were “stupefied” by her insistence that the Louvre security did not fail
“I think the whole world is laughing,” they add.
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Des Cars confirms offer to resignpublished at 16:28 BST
Breaking
Image source, EPAThe Louvre director confirms she offered to resign but that it was rejected.
More to follow.
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A picture of underfunding and outdated security at Louvrepublished at 16:26 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editorListening to the litany of problems at the Louvre, which Laurence des Cars says has not really been renovated since the 1980s, it becomes clear why the world’s most popular museum had become so vulnerable to attack.
Here are some of the issues she’s raised so far:
- Cuts in surveillance and security staff over the past decade
- Obsolete technical equipment
- Ageing perimeter cameras that do not cover such a prominent balcony
- Decaying infrastructure that can’t handle the latest generation of video equipment
Many museums and tourist destinations will recognise the challenges and failings in the Louvre.
But the fact is that des Cars has now promised improvements, which begs the question: why did she and her predecessors not prioritise these changes earlier?
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Louvre director warned about ‘obsolete’ infrastructure when she took overpublished at 16:24 BST
Breaking
Image source, EPABack now to the session of the French senate’s culture committee.
Louvre director des Cars says the museum infrastructure is “aging” and that modern equipment cannot be simply added.
Des Cars says she was warned about “how obsolete” the equipment at the Louvre was when she took the job, in contrast to the modern equipment of the Musee d’Orsay, where she worked previously.
She adds that she hopes work will begin at the start of 2026.
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Is anyone to blame for Louvre security debacle?published at 16:20 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editorObviously, the answer is yes. Quite simply France’s crown jewels should not be stolen from the nation’s most storied museum half an hour after opening time on a Sunday.
And yet, there has been a curious refusal to admit failings, unless you count Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin’s admission that “what is certain is that we have failed”.
But the people most directly responsible – and they don’t include Darmanin – have been more reticent about failings.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has admitted there was a failure, although he asserted: “The alarm system worked perfectly, as
soon as the window was attacked, it was activated.“Police were
notified, and within three minutes they were on the scene. The
whole system worked, it didn’t fail, but what happened has
happened.”Culture Minister Rachida Dati says the same: “Were the security measures at the Louvre Museum faulty? No, they were not.”
The French public will be looking for more concrete explanations than that.
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Security camera didn’t cover area where jewel thieves broke in, director sayspublished at 16:15 BST
Breaking
Asked if all the alarms and video system were functioning properly, des Cars says the video system did.
Asked if they worked outside, she replies: “We did not spot the arrival of the thieves early enough… the weakness of our perimeter protection is known.”
She says there are security perimeter cameras but they are aging and do not cover all the external walls of the Louvre.
The only camera over the Apollo Gallery was facing westwards and didn’t cover the balcony where the break in took place.
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‘We’ll get over these traumatic events’published at 16:11 BST
As our Europe editor just mentioned, des Cars is calling for a police commissariat to be installed at the Louvre. Additionally, she says the number of security cameras needs to be doubled.
She says she wants a new system in the museum able to “look everywhere”, as well as a modernised system for the detection of break-ins.
The museum has reopened this morning in a way that guarantees the safety of everyone, she says, adding: “We’ll get over these traumatic events.”
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Admission of failings and a call for better securitypublished at 16:07 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editorMedia caption, ‘We were defeated,’ says Louvre director after robbery
The Louvre director lists a series of renovations that have been going at the Louvre and yet despite all the museum’s efforts admits “we have been defeated”.
Her testimony is raw – she speaks of a tragedy and of an immense shock. She complains of seeing her name being thrown under a bus.
Although at times her words come across as impersonal, she promises that security will improve and that she has not been distracted from her mission.
There is a very different tone though from the more defensive words given until now by the culture minister and interior minister who have so far insisted that there were no security failings.
The failings, explains des Cars, were in the outdated security arrangements and she even advocates having a police commissariat at the heart of the museum.
Museums “are not and never will be fortresses – they are by their very nature open,” says the museum director.
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Thieves tried to set car alight as they fled – des Carspublished at 16:05 BST
Breaking
Image source, ReutersContinuing to walk senators through the details of the robbery, Des Cars four minutes after an alarm sounded and the thieves broke in, they escaped through the window.
She says they attempted to set their vehicles alight but the security guards didn’t let them.
They ran away but dropped one of the jewels which was badly damaged, she says.
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Louvre director details how robbery unfoldedpublished at 16:02 BST
Des Cars now talks through how the brazen daylight robbery was executed.
At 09:30 local time on Sunday, masked thieves parked a van next to one of the Louvre walls, and pretended to carry out maintenance.
They used a mechanical device to reach up to the museum’s Apollo Wing, she says, where they managed to make a hole into the room where the jewels were, which they eventually broke through.
It was at this point that security guards signalled an intrusion. The thieves quickly fled and an alarm went off.
By 09:37, security had told police that the museum had been broken into, she adds.
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Des Cars talks through recent work on security at museumpublished at 15:57 BST
De Cars continues to focus on CCTV in the Louvre, saying lots of cameras were added recently.
She says she decided to reinforce security measures at the museum following a police report in 2023.
She adds that over the last 10 years, there has been “strong security”, but says there was a need for external help.
This summer, she received an external report on security and implemented what they advised, she adds.
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Louvre hopes to address structural and security issues over ‘number of years’published at 15:56 BST
Continuing to speak in France’s senate, Des Cars says old buildings like the Louvre have “real structural issues”.
Given that it hasn’t really been touched up since the 1980s, it is “not up to standard”, she adds.
Des Cars says she would like to close parts of museum “little by little” for refurbishment and making it more secure.
“It will happen over a number of years,” she says.
She also says that they need to urgently look at why certain security measures have been delayed, and need to reinforce more CCTV.
