Four hooded thieves took their loot after breaking into the Apollon gallery at the Louvre
Two men arrested, suspected of having stolen jewelry from the Louvre Museum, “partially admitted” their involvement in the robbery in broad daylight but the precious pieces remain missing, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Four hooded thieves made off with their loot after breaking into the Louvre’s Apollon Gallery, home to the French crown jewels, during opening hours on the morning of October 19, exposing security flaws at the world’s most visited museum.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the two men in custody were suspected of breaking into the museum through an upstairs window, while two accomplices waited in the street below.
“Both partially admitted their involvement to investigators,” she said at a press conference.
“We do not exclude the possibility of a larger group, including a person who ordered the theft and who could have been the recipient of the stolen jewelry,” Beccuau added.
At this point in the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest the heist was an inside job, she said.
“The jewels are not yet in our possession. But I want to maintain the hope that they will be found and returned to the Louvre museum.”
Charges of organized theft
The two arrested men were arrested on Saturday after being identified using DNA traces left at the crime scene.
One of them, a 34-year-old Algerian, unemployed and living in France since 2010, was arrested by the police as he tried to board a flight to Algeria. The other man, 39, was already under judicial supervision in a case of aggravated theft, Beccuau said.
The two men live in Aubervilliers, a working-class neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Paris.
Beccuau said investigators would ask magistrates to place the two men under formal investigation on suspicion of multiple organized theft offences. Being indicted in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to a trial, but shows that judicial authorities believe there is sufficient evidence to open a preliminary investigation.
Their lawyers, David Bocobcza and Reda Ghilachi, told the BFMTV television channel that they demanded that the investigation remain confidential and conducted with complete serenity. They said their clients would only speak to the investigating magistrates.
Thieves stole eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre collection on October 19 before fleeing on motorbikes.
They used a forklift stolen from the town of Louvres in Val-d’Oise, near Paris, two weeks before the robbery, to access an exterior balcony before breaking a window, the prosecutor said.
The museum’s cameras failed to detect the intrusion quickly enough to prevent the theft, which lasted between six and seven minutes.
Security breaches forced the museum to transfer some of its most precious gems to the Banque de France under secret police escort, according to French radio RTL.
Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery, French radio RTL reported on Thursday.
The French television channel BFM reported Thursday that another person was arrested Wednesday evening in the Paris region and that this man was suspected of being present at the crime scene on October 19, at the time of the robbery.
Two men arrested last weekend “partially admitted” their involvement in the robbery, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Officials at the Paris prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the situation.
