Court accuses woman of complicity in Louvre robbery and releases suspect

Police say they found “traces of DNA” from another suspect arrested in the October 19 robbery, which took place in less than eight minutes. The other people detained “may eventually provide us with information about the development of the events”, said prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

On October 25, two men were arrested, suspected of being part of the group of four men who were at the museum. One of them, detained at a Paris airport, was about to board a flight to Algeria. The two men, aged 34 and 39, placed in pre-trial detention on Wednesday night, were charged.

100 investigators on the case

The prosecutor admitted on Thursday that the jewelry had not yet been found. Beccuau highlighted his “determination”, as well as that of the approximately one hundred investigators deployed, in recovering the stolen jewelry and identifying all the criminals involved. Investigators are exploring “several parallel markets” as the items are unlikely to appear on the legal art market.

The case sparked long debates about the security of the Louvre, the most visited art museum in the world. The French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, revealed on Friday the first conclusions of an administrative investigation into the museum’s security, presenting a very critical report. She pointed to “a chronic and structural underestimation of the risk of intrusion and theft” by the Louvre, “a lack of adequate security arrangements”, “inadequate” governance and “totally obsolete” theft and intrusion response protocols.

The action was cinematic. On the day of the robbery, the four criminals managed to park a truck with a lifting platform next to the museum, allowing two of them to climb with the help of a basket to the gallery where the Crown jewels are kept.