Investigation says Louvre thieves had less than a minute to escape

MADRID, December 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Appearances before a French Senate committee into the October 19 theft at the Louvre museum in the French capital Paris revealed that those allegedly involved had less than a minute to escape the scene without being detected by police.

A senior official pointed out that the thieves “managed to flee” the scene where they committed the crime for only 30 seconds, so the theft could not have been avoided “barely”.

“For very little, the security agents or the Police could have foiled this theft,” said the director of the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs of France, Noël Corbin, during a series of statements before the Senate cultural committee, according to information collected by the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’.

Another present, Pascal Mignerey, employee at the Ministry of Culture, pointed out that a camera placed next to the room where the jewels were found “perfectly recorded the arrival of the thieves, the installation of the platform, their entry onto the balcony and, a few minutes later, their exit”. “However, these recordings were not seen in person and when they were examined, it was too late and the thieves had abandoned the building,” he stressed.

Shortly after the theft, the Ministry of Culture indicated that the jewelry was of “low value” and clarified that it was the tiara from the trousseau of Queen María Amelia and Queen Hortensia, the necklace from the sapphire trousseau of Queen María Amelia and Queen Hortensia, an earring from a pair of the sapphire trousseau of Queen María Amelia and Queen Hortensia, a necklace emeralds from María Luisa’s trousseau, a pair of emerald earrings from María Luisa’s trousseau, a brooch called a reliquary brooch, Empress Eugénie’s tiara and a large bow as a brooch from Empress Eugénie’s corsage.

To this must be added the crown of Empress Eugénie, found damaged near the Louvre museum. Despite everything, the famous Régent, the largest diamond in the collection, weighing more than 140 carats, was not among the stolen jewels.