The director of the Louvre in Paris addressed on Wednesday a brand new safety breach on the museum whereas detailing plans underway to overtake the power’s safety system within the wake of final month’s $102 million jewel heist.
Laurence des Automobiles, president and director of the Louvre, appeared earlier than the Nationwide Meeting Tradition Affairs Committee and was grilled a few new safety breach that occurred on the museum final week.
Lawmakers requested the director how two Belgian influencers had been in a position to grasp a portrait of themselves on Friday in a gallery housing Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa portray.
Louvre Museum President and Director Laurence des Automobiles (C) appears on as she testifies earlier than the Nationwide Meeting Cultural Affairs Committee in Paris, November 19, 2025.
Bertrand Guay/AFP through Getty Pictures
Saying she needed to “put issues in perspective,” des Automobiles mentioned the safety breach was one in all a string of incidents which have plagued the 232-year-old museum over time.
“We consistently have incidents within the Louvre’s galleries. Two years in the past, it was activists,” des Automobiles, referring to environmental activists who hurled soup on work, a tactic different museums around the globe have skilled.
She mentioned the brand new safety equipment being applied on the museum will assist employees head off such incidents sooner or later, together with the set up of what she described as anti-intrusion methods.
Des Automobiles mentioned a serious safety enchancment would be the development of a police station on the grounds of the Louvre.
$102 million in jewels stolen from Louvre
Louvre Museum
The director mentioned the police station is amongst greater than 20 “emergency measures” that might be put in place “within the coming days.”
She mentioned the safety measures may even embrace the set up of 100 new safety cameras on the Louvre, together with cameras to watch the perimeter of the museum that had been severely missing through the Oct. 19 jewel heist.
The creation of a safety coordinator place can be a part of the safety enhance, des Automobiles mentioned. She additionally mentioned two galleries that had been just lately closed will get a safety improve earlier than they reopen.
Legislation enforcement sources verify to ABC Information, October 23, 2025, that they’re conscious of a video taken by Louvre safety displaying two thieves exiting the famed Paris museum on a truck-mounted cherry picker with jewels stolen from the Apollo Gallery.
Aquired by ABC Information
Des Automobiles mentioned the “appalling irony of the scenario” is that the Louvre jewel heist occurred as most of the safety enhancements had been being made. She mentioned that between 2022 and 2025, 134 digital cameras had been put in all through the museum as a part of a $933 million “Louvre New Renaissance” plan.
“I wish to instill a real safety tradition,” mentioned des Automobiles, including that she has been calling for the safety upgrades since she grew to become the museum’s director in 2022.
Because the theft on the Louvre, a number of safety points have emerged, highlighting considerations concerning the world’s most visited museum.
Among the many revelations was {that a} single perimeter safety digicam outdoors the Louvre was not dealing with the Apollo Gallery, the place the robbers used a truck-mounted mechanical cherry picker to succeed in the gallery and energy instruments to chop their means in. Earlier this month, a museum worker with information of the safety system revealed that the password for the museum’s video surveillance system was merely “Louvre.”
Suspects charged in Louvre Case
Paris Public Prosecutor, Adobe
On Monday, the Louvre introduced {that a} public gallery and a number of other workplaces had been being quickly closed as a result of they’d grow to be structurally fragile.
4 suspects have been arrested and charged within the October theft, however the eight items of the French crown jewel assortment swiped from the Apollo Gallery haven’t been recovered, authorities mentioned.
French investigators mentioned the jewel heist from begin to getaway took seven minutes.
Prosecutors haven’t dominated out making extra arrests within the case, however mentioned investigators have but to seek out any proof implicating members of the museum employees within the theft.
ABC Information’ Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.
