It was the news that went round the world in a matter of minutes. The world’s largest museum, the Louvre,was broken into in just seven minutes on Sunday. Four individuals broke into the magnificent Galerie d’Apollon using a gondola. Inside, eight priceless jewels were stolen. But in the rush (or lack of finesse on the part of the burglars?) Empress Eugenie’s crown was found near the museum, unfortunately damaged. What’s more, another piece of jewelry was found in the salon in which the theft took place. Yes, but this isn’ t the first time the museum has been targeted by thieves. Here are all the confirmed and foiled robbery attempts at France’s most famous museum.
Nine confirmed thefts at the Louvre in its 100-year history…
If the theft on Sunday October 19 is on everyone’s lips, it’s because it’s the second of its kind confirmed by the museum. Eight pieces of jewelry of “inestimable heritage value”, including Empress Eugénie’s diadem and two necklaces, were stolen in the space of a few minutes. Jewels which, if not recovered in time, could be dismantled and re-cut…
A disaster for our heritage, but unfortunately not the thieves’ first strike… In 1911,the Mona Lisa was stolen. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, had briefly worked at the museum, making frames and display cases for the works. He was able to unhook the Mona Lisa and leave the museum without being stopped by anyone. The painting was only recovered two years later. The thief wanted to sell it to another museum, but Leonardo’s painting was so well known that he was unable to sell it… This story made the Mona Lisa one of the museum’s “world icons”…
When the museum reopened in the aftermath of the Second World War, security was, as you’d expect, rather chaotic. Thieves had a field day , stealing jewelry on loan to a Virginia museum in 1966. They were found in a shopping bag near New York that same year.
Almost 10 years later, in 1976, a double theft took place within a few months of each other: a Flemish painting disappeared from the museum, then in December of the same year, a sword of King Charles X, set with precious stones, vanished… Although the painting was found, the sword is still out there, probably since dismantled…
In 1983, an Italian Renaissance suit of armor was the object of unhealthy covetousness… More than 40 years after the theft, fragments of the armour were recovered from a private collection and returned to the museum.
Closer to home, in 1990, a tiny Renoir painting was snatched in broad daylight, along with twelve pieces of ancient Roman jewelry. Five years later, two more objects were stolen in the space of a week. Then, in 1998, a painting by Camille Corot disappeared from the museum, never to be seen again.
Thwarted burglary attempts over the years
There are those who succeed, and those who fail. Among the many attempted burglaries of the Louvre, history will certainly remember that of the Nazis in 1940. The Nazis were occupying France, and their aim was to plunder a large part of the famous museum’s collection. But thanks to the cunning of the Louvre’s director, who saved a large part of the collection, the museum was largely preserved from the war. When the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, they found the museum virtually empty… The works of art had been sheltered in wooden crates and shipped to the countryside.
The Louvre: a poorly protected museum…
Despite the numerous break-ins , security at the world’s largest museum left much to be desired… The Denon wing, which houses the Galerie Apollon targeted on Sunday, is very poorly equipped with surveillance cameras: a third of the space has none. The same goes for the Richelieu sector , where three-quarters of the rooms have blind spots, with no video surveillance to reinforce security. In five years, the museum has installed just 138 cameras. That’s very little for a museum of this size. And what about the fire protection system, unfinished since 2010? It’s a damning record, and one that shows that investment in security has been on the back burner for far too long.
The “Louvre Renaissance” project, launched last January, was supposed to enhance the museum’s security and restore it to its former state of disrepair. Let’s hope that this latest incident will change things for the better in terms of preserving our heritage.