Two suspects have been arrested for stealing precious crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre museum, French media reported.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said one of the men was taken into custody as he prepared to Gaulle.
The items, worth €88m, were stolen last Sunday when four thieves armed with power tools broke into the building in broad daylight.
France’s justice minister later admitted that security protocols had “failed”, leaving the country with a “terrible image”.The suspects were arrested on Saturday night, without specifying how many people were taken into custody.
One of the suspects was preparing to fly to Algeria, police sources told French media, while the other was travelling to Mali. property.
Author photo, Getty Images
Once inside, the thieves stole jewellery that was in the windows and then left the scene on motorbikes. Nunez says the robbery lasted seven minutes.
Investigators are currently compiling an exact list of what was stolen.
In addition to the commercial value, the ministry says the items have immense historical and cultural value.
Thefts from the Louvre have been very rare, but they have happened. The most famous case occurred in 1911, when Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “Mona Lisa” was stolen.
The case involved the questioning of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and the painter Pablo Picasso, but the culprit was an Italian who – out of a sense of national pride – wanted the painting returned to Italy.
Three years later it was found in Florence and returned to Paris. At that time, the painting was not 22)There have been few thefts in 230 years – thanks to strict security. The last case of disappearance was Camille Corot’s painting “The Road to the North” in 1998.
But the most famous case is the kidnapping of the Mona Lisa in 1911. The thief then hid in a cupboard all night, took the painting out of the frame, wrapped it in a dressing gown and quietly walked out of the museum.
He was an Italian nationalist who wanted to return the masterpiece to his homeland. The painting did not return to the Louvre until 1914.
In this case, it is unlikely that such a happy outcome can be expected. If scientists and law enforcers do not apprehend the thieves quickly, their first task is to atomise the jewels and sell them piecemeal. For professionals, this won’t be much of a problem.