Louvre robbery puts pressure on French ministers to improve museum security

The French government is under pressure over museum security as police continued to search for thieves who took seven minutes to steal priceless jewels from the Louvre, the world's most visited museum.

- Angelique Chrisafis

"What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels, and give France a terrible image," the justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, told France Inter radio yesterday.

The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, ordered prefects across France to immediately reassess security measures protecting every museum and cultural site.

Security cameras were lacking in a third of the Louvre's rooms, according to a state auditor report due to be published next month which criticised "considerable" and "persistent" delays in updating security.

The report, which was obtained by France Inter and covered the period of 2019 to 2024, pointed to a delay in the museum's security upgrades, with, for example, just a quarter of one wing of the museum covered by video surveillance.

Alexandre Portier of the right-wing party Les Républicains, who heads parliament's cultural affairs committee, called for an inquiry "so all lessons can be learned" and to spark "a general reflection about how we protect our heritage".