Transcription
There are many frustrated tourists on the streets of Paris today as the world famous Louver Museum, one of the city's main attractions, remains closed. That's a day after thieves broke into one of the louver's wings and stole eight priceless pieces of historic jewelry.
Teams of investigators are still trying to find the group of criminals who committed the heist on Sunday in broad daylight. They use a freight lift to reach one of the museum's upper windows. Now, that heist has ignited a debate about the lack of security in French museums.
The country's justice minister has acknowledged shortcomings in protecting the louver. "We have to ask why the windows weren't secured and how it was possible to use a cherry picker on a public highway. Having been Minister of the Interior, I know that it's impossible to completely secure all locations. What is certain is that we have failed since it was possible to place a cherry picker in the middle of the streets of Paris and lift people up in a matter of minutes to steal priceless jewelry. This gives France a terrible image."
Now, let's bring in Arthur Brand. He is a Dutch art crime investigator and has been dubbed the Indiana Jones of the art world due to his successes in recovering stolen objects. Welcome, Arthur. One day on from that heist, what do you think the thieves are doing with their loot right now?
Well, normally after heists like this, uh the thieves lay low for a while because they don't want to attract attention and probably within a week uh they will try to try to sell these items and they you cannot sell these priceless items which everybody knows all around the world in one piece. So they probably have the idea to dismantle all the diamonds to melt down uh the gold and the silver. So that will probably start next week or in two weeks. But for the moment they are laying down and of course they're watching the news.
So the pressure is on for the investigators. What would be your first move now if you were investigating this case?
What the police is doing right now? By the way, probably the the security um service has also been involved, the Secret Service. Um what I will do right now is and what they are doing is check the footage from the museum, the security cameras, not only from yesterday but from the last two months because these thieves have entered the museum as normal tourists in the last two or three months just to check the thickness of the glass of the display display cases. Um how thick are the doors. So the police is now watching this footage to see if there is something out of the extraordinary people who do not fit in as normal tourists. So that's the first thing they now do. And of course they already have a list of of 20 usual suspects, people who have done this before. Um heist like this, well not the GL of course because that's unheard of, but uh they already might have some suspects.
Now, as far as heists go, this one was pretty high class, don't you think? What does it tell us about these robbers?
Well, it's the heist of the decade. You know, the Louva, the most famous museum in the world, they get away with the French crown jewels related to Napoleon. So, um, these people are professionals. I always say, you don't wake up as a normal citizen thinking, I become an N thief. Let's start with the Lou. So these people have done more heist not like this but similar heist. So uh they have a criminal record. It's not their first time and I said the police probably already have some people inside some suspects who they are easedropping on who are they are following. So um it's a professional group. If if you manage to enter and leave the Lou within 4 minutes with the French crown jewels, you're not an amateur.
Yes, I believe you can say that. You think they specifically targeted the items uh they took or do you think they just went for whatever they were able to get their hands on?
No, they targeted these French crown jewels. Um as said, you cannot sell them separately, but there are thousands of diamonds within these objects. So if you dismantle them and you sell these diamonds separately, there is no link to the heist. And that's why they didn't take the Mona Lisa for example which was stolen in 1911 um and luckily recovered but they targeted gold, silver and diamonds and that's what we are seeing in the last 10 15 years that most museum heists are now about gold, silver and diamonds.
Now it has been said that this was a commissioned um heist. Who plans or commissions such a brazen robbery?
Yeah, that's wrong. Um, commissioned heist you only see in the movies. Um, nobody would touch these items. There is not a secret collector trying to get these things because you know if you get caught you you end up in jail. You cannot show it to your friends. You cannot leave it to your children. So, um, that that's only something from Hollywood movies. Um, these guys try to to melt it down to dismantle these items and to to try to sell it. But the funny thing is the police knows that they might think that there is somebody a collector who wants to have them and as soon as the police have has a lead they will disguise one of their own imposing as such a collector and then these guys will be arrested.
From where we stand now um what do you think what are the chances of recovering these items?
Well the thieves will get caught. The police is after them. the secret service. Uh, everybody's on the lookout. Uh, normally they will get caught. But then the problem is where is the loot? Um, if you give them like two or 3 months um before getting them, you know, they they can uh have sold the the diamond. So, it's now really a race against time. The sooner they get the thieves, and they will get the thieves, um, the more likely they find the loot.
M were you surprised that it was so easy to break into the louver of all places in broad daylight?
Yeah, it's it's the ultimate scandal, you know, this museum, the most famous museum in the world in 4 minutes in and out. And it's difficult to to secure a museum. Um it's not easy. People can come in with a gun, you know. The only thing we can do is to to make it harder for them to slow them down. They know, these thieves know they have only like five, six minutes before the police arrives and they when they check the museum a couple of weeks before they have a stopwatch with them, they look at the class and they think, well, we can manage this in four or five minutes. But if you make the class thicker, if you make more doors, the thieves will know, okay, this will take 10 minutes, that's not enough time uh to get out of here before the police arrive. So, it's all about slowing down people like this.
M so that leads me to my next question. What does this mean for the future of the louver there and the the security systems there?
Well, something has to be done, you know. Um but but there is another bigger problem. Uh all the tens of thousands of museums all around the world, you know, they are watching this and they think, "Oh my god, if the Louver can be targeted, maybe we have local criminals who now think, well, maybe we try our local museum." I think that's the the biggest risk in this and a lot of people are sweating now.
Now if you look at this, you've been dealing in in this kind of business uh for quite a while. Do you have some kind of respect for that kind of a heist?
Well, you know, um they are being idolized in movies, these kind of thieves, and that's that's not correct. you know it is a crime but in my particular case I'm an art detective I should never underestimate my enemies and um luckily nobody was shot nobody was killed there was no violence so if you look at from that perspective it it was a clean heist and of course to be honest and I think everybody is thinking that way um yeah they did the perfect heist you know the only thing is we have to catch them and we have to get these crowns and these jewels, these necklaces to get them back in one piece.
The perfect heist. Thank you very much. The art crime investigator Arthur Brown. Thank you.