The suspects have been arrested in connection with the crown jewels theft from Paris’ Port museum, the Paris prosecutor said Sunday, a week after the heist that stunned the world.
The prosecutor said investigators made the arrests on Saturday night and added that one of the detained men was preparing to leave the country from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
French media BFM TV and newspaper Le Parisien previously reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests or say whether any jewelry had been recovered.
Last Sunday morning, it took thieves less than eight minutes to steal jewelry valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) from the world’s most visited museum. French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s façade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled. The museum director called the incident a “terrible failure.”
Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious robberies and art thefts made the arrests. In his statement, he lamented the premature leak of information, saying it could hamper the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewelry and arrest all the perpetrators.” Beccuau said more details will be revealed once the suspects’ custody period ends.
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The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence.”
The Louvre reopened its doors earlier this week after one of the highest-profile museum heists of the century shocked the world with its audacity and scale.
Thieves came and went and made off with some of France’s crown jewels, a cultural wound that some compared to the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire.
The thieves escaped with a total of eight items, including a sapphire diadem, a necklace and a unique earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortensia.
They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugenie’s diamond diadem and her large bow-shaped brooch, an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship, were also part of the loot.
One piece, Eugénie’s imperial crown set with emeralds and more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.
News of the 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 happen, but it was important that the boys were captured,” said Freddy Jacquemet.
“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewelry,” added Diana Ramírez. “That’s what really matters.”
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