A 2018 audit described the balcony of the Louvre robbery as “a vulnerable point” and warned of the use of a forklift

New and disturbing details continue to come to light about the security breaches that allowed the filmic theft of jewels from the Louvre Museum collection. An audit carried out in 2018 identified the balcony as a vulnerable point through which the thieves entered on November 19. In fact, the possibility of using a forklift or lifting crane to access said window was even mentioned.

That document, whose content was revealed this Wednesday by the newspaper The Worldwas carried out by security experts from the jewelry firm Van Cleef & Arpels and identified “with great precision” the risk posed by the balcony located on the façade of the building facing the Seine River.

Justice, according to the aforementioned newspaper, has not yet had access to this report, which if leaked could even explain the strategy used by the thieves last October, given the coincidences with their way of working.

The suspects accessed the balcony thanks to a lifting crane, broke the window glass and entered the Apollo Gallery. There they broke some display cases to steal eight jewels of the French Crown valued at around 88 million euros. The pieces, which are feared to have been dismantled for sale separately, have not yet been recovered.

The 2018 audit was carried out in a context of concern among the Paris Police and the large luxury brands of the French capital over the increase in theftsespecially in the downtown area, which is where the most visited museum in the world is located.

The study, which had not been made public, warned of major security deficiencies at the Louvrewhich was then chaired by Jean-Luc Martinez, and the issue of the balcony of the Apollo Gallery, in particular, was addressed on two pages with three diagrams, always.

The experts insisted in the document that this balcony overlooking the Quai François-Mitterrand is “one of the greatest vulnerable points of the establishment” and on the ease of access from the ground. In fact, they were considering the possible use of a forklift. They also warned that The security cameras did not completely cover that point.

Furthermore, a year earlier Martinez had already received another risk report prepared by the National Institute of Higher Studies in Security and Justice in Paris, but the museum management considered his conclusions too alarmist and general. The actions were pending receiving more precise recommendations.

In another audit revealed by the newspaper Le Figaro A few weeks ago, the Court of Auditors highlighted the Louvre’s accumulated delay in adapting the museum’s security equipment. The president of the Museum also acknowledged that the criminal gang’s operation was not detected quickly enough and that the perimeter camera system was insufficient.

List of suspects

The firm Van Cleef & Arpels, without denying the existence of that 2018 report, declined to comment to The Worldwhile the management of the Louvre, led since 2021 by Laurence des Cars, pointed out that this evaluation has only come to light after the new president, after the theft, requested all the documents on the Apollo Gallery from the last 25 years.

“These documents had not been communicated during the change of management, in the fall of 2021,” the museum stated to the aforementioned newspaper, in addition to indicating that the audit has been “referred to the General Inspection of Cultural Affairs so that joins ongoing investigations“.

This information became known shortly after the Prosecutor’s Office announced this Tuesday four new arrests in the framework of the investigations into the robbery. Details about their identities, beyond the fact that they are two men and two women who were arrested in the Paris region, and the charges against them remain confidential.

According to data leaked by the press, however, one of the men would be the fourth and last member of the commando that perpetrated on site the robbery in broad daylight, a lightning operation carried out in just 7 minutes. The other three had already been arrested in recent weeks and at the moment there is also one more woman charged, accused of complicity.

The identity of the detainees has been possible to decipher thanks to fingerprints and traces of DNA detected in one of the motorcycles that the group used in the escape and in one of the two display cases that were broken to steal the jewelry, as well as in some of the abandoned objects. So far the three identified are Abdoulaye N.a former Louvre guard, Ayed G. y Slimane K. Who was the ringleader of the operation is still being investigated.