HAGAR COHEN, REPORTER: The scene: The centre of Paris.
The time: 9.30am, just half an hour after the world’s most popular museum opened its doors.
Thieves roll up in a stolen moving truck, extending the ladder, and climb to the first floor. They force open a window into the Apollo Gallery at the south side of the Louvre, overlooking the river Seine, hundreds of unsuspecting tourists below.
PROF. ERIN THOMPSON, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: I don’t think it was an insider job because the point of having an insider job is that it’s easier to do. That you can bypass normal security, that you can cover up your theft without anybody noticing it. But people are going to notice when you come in with little miniature chainsaws through the window.
HAGAR COHEN: It is alleged that four intruders, one in a high vis vest, slipped into a room glittering with French crown jewels only 250 metres from the Mona Lisa.
Their loot: A jewel-encrusted brooch, decorative bow and a diamond tiara once worn by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon the Third.
Professor of Art Crime Erin Thompson says the pieces are destined for the black market.
ERIN THOMPSON: People who go after gems, precious metals, they’re in it for the sake of disguising, melting down, recutting these materials and reselling them. It’s all about the money. It’s not some eccentric billionaire who wants his girlfriend to dress up in Eugenicist Tiara.
They are pieces that are not hugely old, but they’re very blingy, very jewel encrusted, very, very, very valuable.
HAGAR COHEN: In their rush to escape, the intruders dropped a few gold and emerald pieces before taking off on motorbikes and left behind a helmet.
ERIN THOMPSON: Usually in this type of smash and grab heist, the people who go into the museum are hired hands, they’re habitual criminals. Usually, it’s much harder to catch the people who have planned the heist or who have the materials because usually the point is for the people who go in to hand it off to their bosses as soon as possible.
HAGAR COHEN: Two men have since been arrested.
ERIN THOMPSON: My guess is that these crowns were long ago, first thing broken apart and they will not be recovered
HAGAR COHEN: The seven minute heist has since become a global sensation. Social media is flooded with tourists mimicking the theft outside the Louvre.
JOAN HANNINGTON: My name’s Joan Hannington. I’m the author of the book, I Am What I Am, also the recent book, Joan, which was made into a TV drama about starring Sophie Turner, about my alleged life as a jewel thief. And apparently, I am Britain’s most famous jewel thief. I neither admit or deny.
HAGAR COHEN: Joan Hannington was known for stealing diamonds by swallowing the gems back in the ‘80s.
JOAN HANNINGTON: And perhaps they should have had someone like me on the job because I wouldn’t have left any behind, dear. What’s the point in going to rob jewellery museum of loads of jewels and you drop half of it? It couldn’t have been that well planned out.
HAGAR COHEN: French authorities have conceded that security protocols failed, causing national embarrassment.
The museum’s director admitted the closest camera was pointing away from the window used to enter the Apollo gallery and that CCTV around the perimeter is weak and ageing.
JOAN HANNINGTON: I think it’s ridiculous that they’ve got something like 76 million pounds worth of jewellery and it wasn’t insured. I mean, you couldn’t make it up.
ERIN THOMPSON: It’s hugely embarrassing, I would say to the French authorities, especially today when Western museums are saying, we’re the best place to safeguard the world’s heritage so we’re not going to give you back your stuff.
African countries who are requesting it, Asian countries who are requesting it. It’s a little embarrassing to say, actually, we’re having stuff ripped out of our display cases.
HAGAR COHEN: The Louvre has since transferred some of its precious jewels to one of the most secure vaults at the bank of France.
ERIN THOMPSON: You might think it’s surprising that a heist like this could take place, but actually many museums are very vulnerable to similar break-ins. It’s incredibly expensive to staff museums.
Mostly of the museums depend on us to behave when we go in.
