The heist of the decade

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:07Today, the jewellery heist of the decade.

0:16So this was a sunny Sunday morning outside the most visited museum in the world. It was 9.30am. People had already started visiting the museum. Queues were forming outside. People were milling around inside. At her flat not too far away, Anjali Chrysifis, the Guardian's Paris correspondent, was finally hoping for some downtime after a tumultuous few weeks in French politics. But it wasn't to be. At 9.30am, four men arrived in a truck outside the Louvre Museum on one of the streets which borders the River Seine. And they drove this truck right up to the edge of the wall of the museum beneath a very beautiful balcony.

0:59First of all, they carefully put out traffic cones to look like they were doing building work or delivery. They had an extendable ladder, so they pushed up that ladder. They had a furniture hoist, and then two of the men, one was wearing an orange high-vis jacket like a builder, and one was wearing a yellow high-vis jacket. They got into the furniture hoist, casually went up to the balcony, climbed over it, and there they're faced by a reinforced glass window into one of the Louvre's most beautiful galleries. The men cut through the window with some power tools and slipped inside the museum. This was the Apollo Gallery.

1:33It's the most ornate and arguably the most beautiful room in the Louvre Museum. It was decorated at the request of Louis XIV, the Sun King, in honour of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun. It has a beautiful gold vaulted ceiling and it houses the French crown jewels. The men took no time to admire the splendour. They simply took out an angle grinder, cut through the glass a very neat square, climbed in, went up to two cases with priceless jewels, broke into those cases, at which point the alarms went off. But they still had time to snatch jewels, go back to the window, back down the ladder and disappear on high powered motorbikes.

2:19They left in such a hurry that they actually dropped one of the most important pieces, which was an imperial crown of Empress Eugenie, which contained more than 1 ,300 diamonds. In four minutes, the men were gone. And with them, the French crown jewels, worth an estimated 88 million euros. Four days on, could these national treasures already have been melted down? Or could there be a reclusive billionaire admiring the loot from their underground lair? From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in Focus, au revoir to the French crown jewels.

2:58Angelique Chrysophis, you're The Guardian's Paris correspondent. Thank you once again for joining us. I know it's a really busy day for you. Hi, nice to be here. So I think you went down to the Louvre, didn't you, on Sunday after news broke of this really outrageous robbery. Can you describe the scene for us? Yes. So the Louvre is a vast building. It was a royal palace. It's got 8 ,000 rooms and it sits just on the edge of the River Seine. And it's near some very, very busy streets with plenty of people, many tourists milling around. And so when I got down there on Sunday, you could see this little lorry, this little truck that had been parked outside that was still there with this ladder that was stretching all the way up to this balcony.

3:38And it was just showed, you gave an idea of how brazen it was really, that this was just parked outside and people got up a ladder.

3:48There were media from the world all over. There were people doing lives to camera. There were tourists taking photos. We came to do some shopping and then we figured, why don't we just go see what happened? And the police investigators were also doing their work at the same time. It was really in full view. We know roughly everything except the main thing, which is where are the jewels and who stole them? But yes, we know... And what were you feeling looking up at that window? I think what everyone in France was thinking, because people were watching at home on their TVs of that ladder, they were thinking about the French Netflix series with Omar Sy playing Lupin, the gentleman burglary.

4:31Yes!

4:36As one of the mayors of the central Paris area said, this sounds like the plot from a film. And talk us through in a bit more detail about the target of this heist. They were the French crown jewels. Were they very popular among Louvre visitors? We know that most people head straight for the Mona Lisa, which I'm usually very surprised to see how small she is. Is this one of the most visited rooms in the museum? Actually, this is one of the most visited rooms in the museum because it's a historic room that was designed by Louis XIV, the Sun King, and it's so ornate and it's actually not far from the Mona Lisa either.

5:14So it is very, very visited and I think what you have to understand is the crown jewels in France, there's a complicated history here and that's why so many people come to see them because of course the crown jewels belonged to the monarchy before the revolution and then when the monarchy was restored after the revolution and then they were actually sold off. Many of them were sold off in 1887 by the Third Republic in France, who just didn't want any of this hanging around still from the monarchy. They didn't want the monarchy back. They didn't want the symbols of monarchy. And then the irony of this, or perhaps the tragedy of this, is that the Louvre, with patrons, had spent decades raising money to actually buy back many of these pieces, to have them again in the French national collection.

5:57So the history is very deep and very complex. It's not as straightforward as simply the crown jewels. It's the crown jewels that have survived revolution, that have been sold out of the state, have come back to the state and are visited with that in mind. And what do we know about who the jewels originally belonged to? The Guardian's art critic, Jonathan Jones, wrote a very entertaining, if slightly snooty piece about these jewels, saying that they didn't even belong, most of them didn't belong to the most famous Napoleon, but one of his relatives, and that the only piece connected to the famous Napoleon was owned by his less famous wife, i.e.

6:33not Josephine. What do we know about the owners? So some of the people who had these jewels were fascinating. So let's start with Hortense. She was the stepdaughter of Napoleon and she wore and possessed many of the jewels that were taken. The Napoleon, yeah. The Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte. The famous Josephine was her mum. But I think one of the most fascinating people in this is the Queen Marie Emily, who's part of the 19th century monarchies who came back after the revolution and didn't last very long. And she had one of the tiaras which went missing, but she actually was terrified of wearing any of this monarchic jewellery because she was afraid of another revolution and she didn't want her head cut off.

7:14And then, of course, we have Eugénie, who was the empress, the wife of Napoleon III in the latter half of 19th century. And hers was the crown that was dropped in the street outside.

7:31Arthur Brand, welcome back to Today in Focus. You are a stolen art detective, which is such a cool job. And you've been on our podcast before. I'm sure it's imprinted on your memory when you came on the show to talk about the British Museum when all of these priceless ancient artefacts went walkies out of the door. But for those who didn't listen to that episode, can you just tell us a little bit about your job? What does a stolen art detective do? Well, you have, of course, the legal art market, but a small part of that is the criminal art market. And then we are talking about museum robberies, art theft from private homes, and forgeries.

8:14There are estimations that 30 % on the art market is fake. And if you invest, let's say 100 ,000 euros in a painting and it turns out to be fake, you have a small problem. So I'm a private citizen working on those cases, art heist from museums like the Louvre. And I always work in close cooperation with the police, the Dutch police and international police forces. Okay. And how do you become a stolen arts detective? Do you just have a contacts book full of criminals who you can tap up for information? Well, you know, you cannot go to university and say, oh, I want to become an art detective, you know, they will laugh at you.

8:53So it's more or less a job that I created myself. And, you know, most people are interested in art and history and crime. So that's not even enough of an explanation. So I think you have to be a little bit crazy to become an art detective. And tell us, give us a flavour of your greatest hits. What kind of art have you managed to recover over the years? Every case is special, you know. I recovered a Van Gogh, a stolen Van Gogh, a stolen Picasso, the Ring of Oscar Wilde, a relic set to contain the blood of Jesus. Oh, wow. So, you know, that's what it is about art. But every object, once you try to recover it, you start studying it.

9:36And there was always a history behind it. When you look at the Louvre that was just hit, you know, if you start reading about these crown jewels, there is such a beautiful history behind it. And that, I think, makes my job great. I always say I have the greatest job in the world, but if I could do it over again, I would never start again. And tell me, what was your reaction when you first heard about this heist in Paris? Given how high profile the Louvre is as the museum, it's the most visited museum in the world, and the value of what was stolen, just how brazen the whole operation was. What did you make of it?

10:13Well, to be honest, the first thought was, oh, shit, it's Sunday morning. Here goes my weekend, you know, and the next couple of days. And then I thought this can't be possible. The Louvre, for God's sake, you know, it's strange because, you know, every museum has been targeted once in his lifetime. But nobody ever thought that the Louvre could be targeted. You know, it's the most famous museum in the world. It's been shown in the great movies from Robert Langdon, from Dan Brown. You know, this is a sacred place. So I could not imagine that they targeted the Louvre and got away with the French crown jewels related to Napoleon.

10:58You know, it's as bad as it gets. It's the heist of the decade. What did you make of the thieves' methodology? It was so brazen, wasn't it? Well, what I think is this. I know a lot of ex-R thieves, ex-burglars, etc. And when I talk to them, they always talk about their biggest heist. And you see when they talk about that, you see that they even dreamed of another bigger heist. So I think that these guys already were watching the Louvre for quite a while. And as far as I understood, there is some construction work going on right now. So these guys thought, well, let's disguise as construction workers.

11:40These are professional thieves. You don't wake up in the morning thinking, as a normal citizen, thinking, let's become a burglar. And why not start with the Louvre? You know, that's not the way it works. So these people are professional thieves. They have done other heists, of course, not as big as this one. but they have they have a criminal record they are on file the police knows them not in this case of course but they are known to the police hopefully their DNA is somewhere because apparently DNA has been found and I also thought another thing the last months I've given so many interviews about other French museum heists two have taken place in September in France in one case they stole French porcelain worth like 10 million euros, Chinese porcelain.

12:32And I thought this might be copycats. People who have seen these news reports and thinking, my God, if they can pull it off, we can pull it off. What you see in the last 10 years is an enormous rise in museum theft, not targeting so much paintings, they still do that too, but they target gold, silver and diamonds. To many of us, it might seem madness to steal something so important and famous as the French crown jewels. How on earth are these thieves going to be able to sell on these crowns and so forth? Or do you think that they're going to just melt them all down and then chisel away at the diamonds to make them unrecognisable?

13:17Yeah. Some people suggest that it has been done on commission, you know, that some secret collector wanted to have these crowns and said, look, you go there and get them for me. It's a great story, but that's Hollywood stuff. It simply doesn't exist. Yeah. There is no such a thing. It started in 1962. I admire your luck, Mr. Bond. James Bond. With Doctor No, the first James Bond movie. At that time, a painting of Goya was stolen from the National Gallery in England. And when they were writing the first James Bond movie, they thought, oh, it will be a great idea to pretend that this painting is in the cave of Doctor No, this bad villain.

14:02You won't get away with it this time, Doctor No. The Americans are prepared for any trouble. I never fail, Mr. Bond. A lot of criminals see this movie and, you know, they think, my God, why keep we stealing cars, you know, stuff like that. Why not steal one painting worth 10 million, steal it and find a Dr. No. Well, Dr. No doesn't exist. Later, it turned out that it was a bus driver who stole this painting. So this was not commissioned. Nobody wants to touch the French crown jewels, you know. People will lynch you for that. The guillotine will be taken out of the museums to cut off their heads, you know.

14:44That's not going to happen. Nobody wants to touch it. If you steal gold and silver, if you steal diamonds, there are other ways you can get rid of them. Gold can be melted down. A couple of years ago, a contemporary piece of art, a golden toilet, was stolen in England. From Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill grew up. Yeah, it most likely has been melted down. And then there will never be a trace back to the original theft. Diamonds, small diamonds, you know, they are very common. And some of these crowns that they have stolen, some of these necklaces, they have hundreds of small diamonds.

15:26And if you steal a painting, let's say a Van Gogh, that's a unique piece. If you try to sell it, everybody will recognize it. But if you dismantle a crown or a necklace, all these small diamonds, you can try to sell. So either these people have lined up already somebody. These groups know people who know how to melt down gold, silver. This could be the case here. And I hope that now, maybe today, they're knocking at this door saying, here is the loot. And I hope that the guy who is standing there at the door says, oh, my God, this must be the loovel. You know, it has there has been so much media attention.

16:05France almost declared war, you know, the French president. I hope that this guy is now saying, please go away. I don't want to have anything to do with that. And tell me if if the aim of these gangsters, these thieves is ultimately just to make a load of money. Why would they target something? where would they target the Louvre? Somewhere that is so famous and where the security is pretty tight. I've visited the Louvre. You have to wait for ages to go through security. Why didn't they just go down the Champs-Elysees or the back streets of the Diamond District in Paris and go for a shop instead?

16:41Yeah, well, I don't know if you shop a lot of diamonds, but if you walk these streets these days, you see security all over the place. some of these places are better secure than some of the museums. On the other hand, there are criminals who think they have watched Ocean 11, Ocean 12, Lupin. And some of them, and I said, you know, I know some of them, ex-thieves. They have this goal, you know, they want to build up a reputation. Once they get caught and they retire, they write books about their biggest heist. They make movies about that. So I think it's a combination of all. they saw an opportunity and they thought, oh my God, they looked at each other and they said, we can pull it off, but should we do it?

17:29It's the louvre, for God's sake. And they did it. And yeah, I think between themselves, they are now looking at each other saying, oh my God, we just robbed the louvre. So do you think really that these criminals are so egotistical that they are actually making a calculation down the line? They're like, okay, if I get caught, I'll go to jail, but then I can sell the rights to Netflix. They're thinking of their IP. I could make a podcast series about this. Well, in the last years, you have seen so many ex-criminals having their own podcasts. Let's talk about a small moment about art forges, the people who fake important paintings and sell them off for millions.

18:13Most of them who got caught became celebrities. They give keynotes, movies are made about them so there is a certain romance around these things the general public thinks that is people stealing from the rich who cares which is false because it's crime you know when you watch the hollywood movies you see people like sean connery climbing down a rope you know from the ceiling and afterwards he drinks wine with a girlfriend you know stuff like that And well, no, it's not like that. These are not the gentleman thieves. These are hardcore criminals. In many of these cases, mafia bosses. That's a bit less romantic, isn't it?

18:55Terrorist groups like ISIS have been involved in stuff like this. So it's not really Sean Gunnery, the people I meet, you know. I wish it was, but it isn't. And if you were the French authorities right now, what would you be doing? Well, the first thing they always do is they know that the thieves have been in the Louvre before to see how thick are the doors, how thick are the display cases. Because, you know, it's not like these thieves enter the Louvre and thinking, what shall we steal? Where do we have to go? So the police is now watching the camera footage from the last two or three months, trying to spot these persons who try to pretend to be tourists, but they do not fit in.

19:43They are not watching the Mona Lisa, but they are watching the ceiling. Where are the cameras? You know, they look at the doors, stuff like that. And most of them get caught because of that. So that's the first thing the police do. and then they will check the traffic cameras where did they go to but I think their best lead is DNA in these days you know even if you sneeze after a year they still find your DNA you know and apparently they tried the mechanical letter that they took with them they tried to burn it that's what I read in the press and they failed so some of the materials they used to to get the entrance to the Louvre, they remained.

20:29And there must be DNA on it. So hopefully their DNA is in some system in France and they will get caught. And of course, they are hoping, what's also my tactic always, hoping to hear from informants from the underworld. There is always somebody who will talk. Somebody who gets these pieces offered. I'm a competitor. most of the people who call me or the police are ex-girlfriends you know they have really they have to set the record straight you know people who betrayed each other and the most famous is always the man with the dog every criminal always told me there was always this witness who was walking his dog who saw something that's what they fear most even more than the police the man with the dog i'm imagining given that it's paris it could be a woman a glamorous woman in a fur coat with a tiny little dog rather than a man with a dog who might have witnessed the crucial moments probably you're right and thinking about that um you know the the funny thing about the pink panthers it's a group from former yugoslavia they did a lot of heist from from miami to japan part of them are women in some cases they are used to distract the guards etc It's so basic, yeah.

21:50It's so cheap, you know, but it works. Yeah. Coming up, first Notre Dame, now the Louvre. Why can't France protect its cultural treasures?

22:13So talk is through what was the reaction in France? It's been a particularly turbulent time for France, hasn't it, in recent weeks? You've been on the podcast to talk about it. How did people take the news? I think France is having a really difficult moment. Political turmoil has returned to France this morning after current Prime Minister Francois Beirut failed a no-confidence vote. It's had three governments collapse in less than a year. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has stepped down just hours after unveiling his cabinet and barely three and a half weeks into the job. And the current government is the weakest in decades.

22:47And its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, this week became the first former European leader to enter prison. The former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has arrived at La Sante prison in Paris, where he'll serve a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise election funds from Libya. So there's a real feeling of distrust in politics and a very febrile mood. the far right who are doing well in the polls, who would like there to be a snap election so that they can make gains, immediately went to town on this theft because they see the Louvre and these particular jewels as a symbol of French heritage, a symbol of the nation.

23:29And Jordan Bardella, who's the head of Marine Le Pen's party, the national rally, on the far right, he said, this is an unbelievable humiliation of our nation. It's a symbol of the decline of France. And Marine Le Pen called it a wound to the French soul. And Gérard Delmenin, who's the justice minister, said, you know, we failed. And this gives a terrible image of France. And would you say that that feeling of humiliation translates to your ordinary man or woman on the street? Is that the overriding feeling? I think at the moment, the overriding feeling is absolute astonishment. And also, I think it's important to bear in mind that Paris has always seen a lot of organised crime.

24:10Paris has always seen a lot of robbery going back 50 years. And that pattern of robbery has slowly changed. First, it was bank heists. They no longer happen. There's not much cash in there. Banks are very well protected. Then we had jewellery stores, jewellery heists in shops like Cartier and so on. They don't happen anymore because jewels are really, really hard to sell on, stolen jewels. Now we've had luxury handbags being targeted. And it seems that these organised crime gangs have realised that there's a weakness in museum collections. And do you think that is because there's been a complacency within the French museum sector?

24:47Or is it more that they're broke? We know that the French finances are under a lot of pressure at the moment. Have they just not got the money to protect a museum in comparison, say, to the Cartier store in central Paris? So it costs a lot of money to secure museums. It's not that the head of the Louvre didn't know about this because she had already asked for an audit of security when she took the position a few years ago. There's been a consistent delay in putting in CCTV and some of the rooms don't have any CCTV at all. Really? We perhaps shouldn't broadcast that in case there are any other potential thieves listening.