(Reuters) -A “chronic, structural underestimation of the risk of intrusions and theft” left the Louvre exposed for over 20 years to the kind of heist the museum experienced this month, French culture minister Rachida Dati said on Friday.
Security gaps contributed to a brazen daylight heist on October 19, in which four hooded thieves made off with eight precious pieces worth $102 million from the museum’s Apollo gallery, home to the French Crown Jewels.
A preliminary report into the theft found inadequate safety equipment, poor organisation and obsolete protocols at the museum, Dati told TF1 TV.
“The devices as they were installed, the alarm and security devices as they were installed on the day of the theft at the Louvre Museum, functioned properly,” but that wasn’t enough to prevent the robbery as security “was not a priority”, Dati said.
She said that the museum will introduce additional security by the end of the year, including anti-intrusion devices and anti-vehicle ramming barriers on nearby public roads.
Louvre director Laurence des Cars told senators last week that she had offered her resignation after the heist, but Dati refused it.
Des Cars spoke of her “disappointment and surprise” at the state of the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, when she moved there from the Musee d’Orsay – home of the French Impressionists.
Seven suspects have been arrested so far in connection with the robbery, but none of the stolen jewels has so far been recovered.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, editing by Richard Lough and Ros Russell)
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