Speaking for the first time since a shocking jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris, the museum’s director acknowledged on Wednesday that much of its security system was badly outdated and that the only exterior camera near the thieves’ entry point was facing away from them.
As a result, the museum’s security system did not see them arriving on Sunday in a truck that they parked right against the Louvre’s walls; nor did it catch them deploying an electric ladder to clamber onto a second-floor balcony.
The security system kicked in only once the thieves had breached a window with power tools, shaving off a crucial several minutes from the authorities’ response time.
“We didn’t spot the thieves’ arrival early enough,” the director, Laurence des Cars, said during a tense, two-hour hearing, during which French senators grilled her on flaws in the museum’s antiquated security system.
“I fully recognize that we have a weakness in the perimeter protection of the Louvre,” she said, noting that the museum, which reopened on Wednesday for the first time since the robbery, was sorely lacking outside surveillance cameras.
Once the thieves broke into the building, the security system worked well, she insisted, with alarms sounding to notify security staff members, who quickly called the police.
But she said the Louvre was not prepared for what the authorities have called a different kind of crime, in which the goal is to break down precious artifacts to resell their stones and metals. Ms. des Cars said security plans had instead been focused in recent years on protecting artwork from soup- or paint-throwing activists.
The brazen heist on the most visited museum in the world has left France stunned and furious, with many demanding to know how four thieves could make off in broad daylight with eight precious crown jewels worth more than $100 million.
More than 100 investigators are racing to find the culprits. The museum’s management and the French government have come under intense public pressure, with some senators demanding that Ms. des Cars, who was appointed to the prestigious job by President Emmanuel Macron in 2021, step down.
“What seems important to us, Madam President, is to establish the chain of responsibility,” said Max Brisson, a conservative senator. “Has our country become the champion of blame-shifting?”
Yan Chantrel, a Socialist senator, was just as blunt. “I think the whole world is laughing at us,” he said.
Ms. des Cars testified that she had submitted her resignation to France’s culture minister after the robbery, but that her offer had been refused.
“I believe that I have been serving France and culture as best I can,” she said.
She also rebuffed accusations that she had not taken security seriously. She told the senators that an “aging” security system greeted her in 2021, with outdated technology, cramped and dispersed command posts, and a declining number of museum attendants.
“I was appalled by the security situation at the Louvre when I arrived,” said Ms. des Cars, who was previously the head of the Musée d’Orsay. “I made it my priority.”
Facing a rolling fire of questions from senators who accused her of moving too slowly to address those concerns, she responded that it took years to analyze a sprawling system that covers more than 400 rooms, get through bureaucratic complexities and select the right companies. One of her aides told the senators that construction for the security overhaul, which is expected to start only in 2026, would require about 37 miles of cables.
This year, Mr. Macron announced a 500 million euro (more than $580 million) renovation plan, which includes €80 million, or about $93 million, for refurbished security command centers, more surveillance cameras and an updated badge system. She said she had boosted safety and security staff by 41 full-time positions, from 2021 to 2024, an increase that labor unions have called insufficient.
On Wednesday, Ms. des Cars called for a system to prevent vehicles from parking too close to the museum’s walls and for a police post to be opened inside the museum. At present, the Louvre has a permanent 52-member force of firefighters on site.
The system’s failures cost security staff four precious minutes, while the thieves parked and ascended to the balcony. But once they burst inside, the alarms functioned normally and the staff reacted appropriately, Ms. des Cars said.
“The security protocol was followed to the letter,” she said.
When two of the thieves breached the balcony window at 9:34 a.m. on Sunday, an alarm went off and sent a signal to a security post in the museum, she said. At 9:35 a.m., she said, one of four museum attendants in the gallery — who are not armed — radioed the Louvre’s main security command center.
A first call to a nearby police station went out within 33 seconds of that radio call, she said, adding that at 9:36 a.m. a museum employee in the command center pressed a security button that alerted the Paris police headquarters.
“The police were warned; three minutes later they were on site,” Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.
The two display cases attacked by the thieves were relatively new and of “very high quality,” said Ms. des Cars. She rebutted suggestions that the gallery’s previous cases, which dropped down into a safe when they were attacked, were better, noting that their mechanism sometimes got stuck or was harmful to the artwork.
The thick glass sides on the new display cases, which were installed in 2019, were built to resist bullets, she said, not power tools that allowed the thieves to cut holes big enough to insert their hands.
At 9:38 a.m., the culprits exited the window and attempted to set the truck they came in on fire, but were chased off by museum guards. In their haste, the thieves dropped the crown of Empress Eugénie, wife to Napoleon III, and the crown had been damaged when it was pulled out of its display case. But the museum’s curators were hopeful that they could restore it, Ms. des Cars said.
Some visitors returning to the Louvre on Wednesday expressed shock that key parts of French heritage had vanished in less than 10 minutes and disappointment that the Apollo Gallery — the 200-foot-long hall targeted by the thieves — remained closed.
“I would have liked to see it,” said Karine Pivetta, 38, a visitor from the south of France. “They are the jewelry of our history, of France’s history.”
Her son, Lucas, did not seem to mind. He was mostly interested in seeing the “Mona Lisa.”
But Emilie Sarran, 39, who was accompanying the two, said she was stunned by the theft. “It is surprising that in a big museum like the Louvre they could do that,” she said.
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
Catherine Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is based in Paris.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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