The hunt continues for four thieves of the priceless jewels from the Louvre in Paris , which the museum has valued at 88 million euros.
An "extremely spectacular" figure, as Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau described it, but which "is not even comparable to the historical damage."
Beccuau promises that the thieves "will not win," but for now there is no sign of them—probably foreigners with ties to major crime.
Dozens of police officers and gendarmes have been mobilized to hunt down the fugitives across France, in a race against time, because the more days pass, the less likely it is that the precious jewels will be found intact.
On the political front and amid the continuing controversy over the security of French museums, Le Figaro revealed that the president of the Laurence des Cars Museum, deeply shaken by the robbery carried out by the Yellow Vests on Sunday morning, had submitted her resignation. Emmanuel Macron, her strong supporter, who also entrusted her with the future construction site of the Grand Louvre, rejected her resignation, urging her to "hold firm."
Even Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, has not given in to the controversy, reiterating before the National Assembly that the Louvre's alarms had been triggered, denying any "malfunction" in the security system. The Louvre's management also vehemently denied this, reacting to reports from the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé, which claimed that the display cases housing the jewels were less sturdy than those used several years ago, capable of "disappearing" into a safe at the first alarm.
For museum officials, the opposite is true: the old systems were "obsolete" and their mechanisms actually endangered the jewels. With the new systems, "all the necessary guarantees" are in place, they added. Investigative reports indicate that investigators have in hand the yellow vest abandoned on the ground during one of the thieves' escape—which reportedly contains DNA traces—and the freight elevator, whose origin appears to have been traced : it had been stolen a few days earlier in a Parisian suburb from its owner, who had put it up for sale on a private auction platform. That elevator, which carried the thieves undisturbed to the first floor and the window of the Apollo Gallery, also reportedly contains fingerprints and traces of its last users. They had, in fact, attempted in vain to set it on fire before fleeing.
