Speaking for the first time since a shocking heist at the Louvre, the museum’s director acknowledged on Wednesday that much of its security system was badly outdated and that none of its external cameras had captured the thieves arriving in their truck or climbing to a second-floor balcony, where they used power tools to break in.
The only exterior camera in the vicinity was pointed in the other direction, Laurence des Cars, who was appointed to lead the Louvre in 2021, said in her opening remarks at a hearing of France’s Senate, where lawmakers grilled her on flaws in the museum’s security.
“That is our weakness,” Ms. des Cars said of the lack of outside surveillance cameras. “We didn’t spot the thieves’ arrival early enough.”
Once the thieves broke into the building, the museum’s security system worked well, she insisted, with alarms sounding to notify security, who quickly called police. But, she acknowledged, the museum was not prepared for this kind of crime, which some experts called commodity theft, intended to resell precious metals.
She said security plans have been focused in recent years, instead, on protecting precious artwork from activists who have thrown paint and soup on paintings.
Ms. des Cars testified that she had submitted her resignation to France’s culture minister after the robbery, but that her offer was refused.
The robbery has intensified the scrutiny on French authorities and whether the Louvre, which reopened earlier on Wednesday for the first time since the heist, was sufficiently protected.
“We need to understand the exact and precise sequence of events,” Laurent Lafon, the senator chairing the hearing, told Ms. des Cars.
The question is not only whether the Louvre’s security systems worked, he added, “but also whether they were appropriate and sufficient.”
Over 100 investigators are racing to find the culprits, with some art crime experts warning that the thieves could break up the jewelry to sell the precious stones and metals on the black market.
“I have every confidence in their ability to find the perpetrators despite the passing days,” Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, told Europe 1 radio.
The government, however, has sent mixed messages over how much responsibility it was willing to accept. Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister, said earlier this week on French radio that “we failed.”
But Rachida Dati, the culture minister, has insisted that the Louvre’s security had not fallen short.
“Did the Louvre Museum’s internal security measures work? Yes,” Ms. Dati told the French Senate on Wednesday. “Did the alarms work? Yes.”
Still, Ms. Dati said that she had ordered an internal investigation and that the museum was already in the process of installing additional video surveillance cameras and creating new security command posts.
The Louvre, a palace turned into a museum after the French Revolution, is a sprawling maze that exhibits over 30,000 of its 500,000 artworks in more than 400 rooms.
“It’s my home,” said Carole Chevallier, 42, an artist who was waiting in line to enter the museum, where she is reproducing a work by Jacob van Ruisdael, a 17th-century Dutch painter. “I’ve been coming here for 15 or 20 years, ever since I was an art student,” she added.
Some visitors expressed shock that key parts of French heritage had vanished in less than 10 minutes, and disappointment that the Apollo Gallery — which houses France’s crown jewels and was targeted by the robbers — remained closed on Wednesday.
“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 pair, said she was stunned by the theft. “It is surprising that in a big museum like the Louvre they could do that,” she said.
The robbery has renewed worries about a lack of surveillance cameras, the functioning of the museum’s alarm systems and the strength of the glass display cases.
The Cour des Comptes, France’s national auditor, had started preparing a report on security and other matters at the Louvre before the heist. According to a confidential draft of the report that was seen by The New York Times, the museum had inadequate video surveillance, as well as huge reductions and delays in security spending in recent years.
The report will also indicate that spending on security in 2024 was far lower than it was 20 years ago, according to the draft.
Pierre Moscovici, the head of the Cour des Comptes, said that the full report would be made public in the coming weeks.
The Louvre has an annual operating budget of about $300 million, about a third of which is provided by the French state. It attracted nearly nine million visitors last year.
But the museum is much more than a tourist attraction. It is a symbol of France’s cultural clout, and an important soft-power instrument for the French state — which is now under fire after such a prized institution came under brazen attack.
“I am not underestimating what our fellow citizens must have felt,” Maud Bregeon, France’s government spokeswoman, told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. But, she added, “let’s keep our cool, let the investigation run its course, and then we can all draw our own conclusions.”
Ségolène Le Stradic and Elaine Sciolino contributed reporting.
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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