French authorities have detained two men suspected of being part of the four-person crew who stole precious jewellery from the world-famous Louvre museum last week, reported news agency AFP citing two sources close to the case.
One of the suspects was apprehended at approximately 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to board a flight abroad, reported French media outlets Le Parisien and Paris Match. The second individual was arrested not long afterwards in the greater Paris region, according to Le Parisien.
Dozens of investigators had been tasked with tracking down the thieves who successfully robbed the Louvre in broad daylight on October 19th, making off with royal jewels valued at an estimated $102 million in just seven minutes.
The robbers had clambered up the extendable ladder of a stolen removal van and, using cutting equipment, forced their way into a first-floor gallery. They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but still managed to steal eight other pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte had gifted to his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.
The brazen theft has made headlines across the globe and sparked a debate in France about the security of its cultural institutions.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed on Sunday that one of the suspects in the daylight heist of some of France’s crown jewels had been arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, as he was about to leave the country on Saturday evening, reported Reuters.
Louvre Moves Crown Jewels to Bank of France
The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France, according to French radio station RTL, following last week’s audacious daylight heist which exposed the famous museum’s vulnerability to security breaches.
The transfer of several valuable items from the museum’s Apollo gallery, which houses the French crown jewels, was conducted on Friday under a secret police escort, RTL stated, citing unnamed sources.
The Bank of France, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a sizeable vault 27 metres (88 feet) below ground, is located just 500 metres away from the Louvre, on the Right Bank of the River Seine.
The robbery clearly exposed security lapses, as the thieves managed to break into the world’s most-visited museum using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours. News of the robbery reverberated across the world, prompting a period of national soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a humiliation.
