Louvre reopens after jewel heist with thieves still on the run

The Louvre reopened Wednesday morning for the first time since the brazen heist of France’s crown jewels.

Police are still hunting the four thieves who made off with eight priceless pieces from the museum’s Apollo Room in a daylight robbery that took just four minutes.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau revealed in a television interview Tuesday that the stolen jewels have an estimated value of €88 million ($102 million).

Beccuau, whose office is leading the probe, said there were now around 100 investigators involved in the race to retrieve the jewels before the thieves melt them down to sell. She said doing so would mean failing to realize anything near their value, but art crime experts fear that’s exactly what the thieves may have planned.

“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” Beccuau said in an interview with broadcaster RTL. “We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”

The museum’s director, Laurence des Cars, will face a grilling from the French senate’s culture committee later Wednesday as the incident fuels national outcry over security at key cultural sites.

The theft has struck a heavy blow to French pride, already tested by political turmoil and social unrest. Officials have faced pressure to explain how such a theft could happen.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati told lawmakers Tuesday that the incident was “a wound for all of us.”

“The Louvre Museum is much more than the largest museum in the world. It is the showcase of French culture and our shared heritage,” Dati told France’s National Assembly.

Dati also insisted that security at the museum was not faulty.

“Did the Louvre Museum’s security measures fail? No, they didn’t. It’s a fact. The Louvre Museum’s security measures worked,” Dati said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged that the heist constituted a failure, but also said that the museum’s alarms functioned as they should have.

“There was a burglary at the Louvre, some of the most precious jewels in France were stolen. So obviously it’s a failure, there is nothing else I can say,” Nunez told Europe 1 radio.

“The alarm system worked perfectly, as soon as the window was attacked, it was activated. Police were notified, and within three minutes they were on the scene. The whole system worked, it didn’t fail, but what happened has happened.”