The theft of Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre is being described as a reminder of the vulnerability of cultural institutions, despite sophisticated security systems and public visibility.
That’s the assessment of Tim Carpenter, former head of the FBI’s art crimes team, who called the weekend heist in Paris an “extraordinary” event, despite heists like this becoming more frequent.
“I think the tools and the methodology they used are fairly predictable, but it’s still an amazing heist that they were able to carry out,” Carpenter said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Sunday.
The heist, described as a “four-minute operation,” occurred in broad daylight, around 30 minutes after the opening of the museum while visitors and tourists were inside.
Carpenter added that as the most visited museum in the world, the Louvre has one of the most advanced security systems — but no institution is “impervious.”
He said the precision of the theft suggests the culprits had significant experience in similar crimes.
“I think, by the very nature of (a) museum, the mission is to be open, inviting to the public, and so that does create specific challenges when you’re trying to protect the world’s cultural heritage,” Carpenter said.
The stolen objects are a “tragic loss” for the whole world, Carpenter added.
“It’s not just jewelry, right? These are cultural items,” he said. “This is our world heritage, our collective heritage, globally. We should all be outraged at this type of the theft.”
While moving stolen paintings or other two-dimensional artwork can be difficult on the black market, Carpenter said jewelry poses a different kind of risk.
“Unfortunately, when we’re talking about jewelry or precious metals, the risk is that they might cut those pieces apart, they might dissemble them and then move them into the marketplace as individual pieces, individual jewels,” he said.
“But because of the high-profile nature of this material, I’m very optimistic that the local authorities will be successful in recovering them.”
With files from the Associated Press
