New footage of Sunday’s shocking heist at the Louvre shows two suspects using a slow-moving lift to escape in broad daylight, with what’s assumed to be France’s crown jewels.
The footage circulating on social media Thursday reveals two individuals using a truck-mounted basket lift to slowly lower themselves from the balcony they allegedly used to reach the museum’s gilded Apollo Gallery, where the royal jewels were on display. One person is seen wearing a high-vis vest, while the other wears a motorcycle helmet.
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The video does not show the individuals reaching the ground due to a fence obscuring them, however previous reporting said they had left the area via electric scooters. Museum guards could be heard in the footage cursing and expressing frustration that the suspects were getting away.
Over the course of about seven minutes, the individuals were able to successfully break into the world’s most popular museum, steal eight pieces of crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million, and escape in plain sight. Four days later, the hunt for the suspects and the jewels continues.
French crime scene officers gesture as they examine the cut window and balcony of a gallery at the Louvre Museum on Oct. 19 in Paris, France. Kiran Ridley via Getty Images
“It’s extremely unlikely these jewels will ever be retrieved and seen again. If these gems are broken up and sold off, they will, in effect, vanish from history and be lost to the world forever,” Tobias Kormind, managing director of European jeweler 77 Diamonds, told The Associated Press.
The video appears to have been filmed on a phone from inside the Paris institution, further highlighting its major security flaws. Activists just one year earlier threw a can of soup at the Mona Lisa, one of the most crowded exhibits at the museum that already serves as a site for mass tourism.
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Louvre director Laurence des Cars conceded on Wednesday that the centuries-old museum’s security and video surveillance “is our weakness.”
That same balcony in the phone’s footage is not covered by outside security cameras, des Cars told French lawmakers, calling for an updated surveillance system and a police station inside the museum. The director also offered to resign in the wake of the heist, which was rejected by French President Emmanuel Macron.
