Suspects arrested over the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre museum – Chicago Tribune
PARIS (AP) — Suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of the crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Paris prosecutor announced Sunday, a week after the heist that stunned the world.
The prosecutor said investigators made the arrests on Saturday evening, adding that one of the men taken into custody was preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
French media BFM TV and newspaper Le Parisien earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests and did not specify whether jewelry had been recovered.
On Sunday morning, thieves took less than eight minutes to steal jewelry worth $102 million from the world’s most visited museum. French authorities described how the intruders used a freight elevator to scale the facade of the Louvre, forced open a window, smashed the display cases and fled. The museum director called the incident a “terrible failure.”
Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit dealing with armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. In her statement, she deplored this premature leak of information, estimating that it could hamper the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewelry and apprehend all the perpetrators”. Beccuau said further details would be released after the suspects’ custody period ended.
The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nunez, praised “the investigators who worked tirelessly, as I asked them, and who always had my full confidence”.
The Louvre reopened its doors earlier this week after one of the most high-profile museum heists of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.
Thieves slipped in and out, stealing some of France’s crown jewels – a cultural wound that some have compared to the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire.
The thieves escaped with a total of eight items, including a sapphire tiara, a necklace and a unique earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
They also took an emerald necklace and earrings linked to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugenie’s diamond tiara and large corsage-shaped brooch – an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship – were also part of the loot.
One piece – Eugenie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds – was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.
News of these arrests was greeted with relief by visitors and passers-by at the Louvre on Sunday.
“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it seems a little late, we wonder how this could have happened, but it was important that the guys were caught,” said Freddy Jacquemet.
“I think the main thing now is can they get the jewelry back,” Diana Ramirez added. “That’s what really matters.”
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