French police are unlikely to recover the Louvre’s jewels even if the robbers are caught

law enforcement often catch Thief like the robbers who stole the crown jewelry From louvre But Police The struggle to retrieve priceless items, Police And what art experts say.

only a small number criminals Will be able to do adventurous things like Sunday Robbery In ParisAnd they may already be known to police, experts say.

But items can be quickly broken down into component parts and sold, making them extremely difficult to recover.

Marc Balcells, a Barcelona-based expert on crimes against cultural heritage, said, “If I steal a Van Gogh, it is a Van Gogh. I cannot dispose of it through any means other than the illegal art market.”

“But when I’m stealing… jeweleryI can take it as precious through illegal market Stone,

shameless loot Of crown jewel The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, has been condemned by some as a national disgrace and France has launched security checks at many cultural sites.

“If you target the Louvre, the most important museum in the world, and then escape French There was something wrong with the crown jewels, the security,” said art investigator Arthur Brand.

“This is one of the largest manhunts in French history.”

Officials at the Louvre, home of artworks such as the Mona Lisa, had actually already sounded the alarm about the lack of investment.

And according to media reports, at least four French museums have been looted in the past two months, including gold stolen from the Natural History Museum in Paris.

Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, which tracks stolen art, said such museum thefts are on the rise across Europe and beyond.

He cited cases of Netherlands, France, Egypt.

“If you have jewelry or gold in your collection, you need to be concerned,” Marinello said.

Whodunnit?

Paris prosecutors have handed the investigation over to a special Paris police unit called the BRB, which is used to deal with high-profile robberies.

Pascal Szkudlara, a former policeman serving in the unit, said the BRB handled the Kim Kardashian investigation in 2016, when Paris thieves stole her $4 million engagement ring, as well as the recent kidnappings of wealthy crypto owners.

He said the BRB has about 100 agents, more than a dozen of whom specialize in museum theft. Investigators will look at video footage, telephone records and forensic evidence, while informants will also be activated.

“They may have teams working on this 24/7 and for long periods of time,” Szkudlara said, expressing “100%” confidence that the thieves will be caught.

Brand said police would look at security footage from the past few weeks and identify the people suspected of causing the damage to the joint.

Corinne Chartrell, a policeman who worked in the French police’s central office for the fight against trafficking in cultural property, said the jewels could potentially end up in a global diamond hub like Antwerp, where “there are probably people who are not too concerned about the origin of the objects.”

Diamonds could also be cut into smaller stones and melted into gold, leaving buyers unaware of their origin.

If thieves feel that the trap is closing, they may loot or destroy the loot entirely.

The police are clearly in a race against time.

Marinello said, “Once they are cut into small jewels, the job is done. It is finished. We will never see these pieces intact again.” “A very small percentage of stolen artefacts are recovered. When it comes to jewellery, the percentage is even lower.”

Any theories about the items being ordered by a mystery buyer were ridiculous, the brand said. “This is unheard of,” he said. “You only see it in Hollywood movies.”

Cultural authorities across Europe will look at how to better protect museums at a time of tight public finances.

Brand said it’s impossible to properly protect a museum, so the best thing to do would be to slow down the time it takes for objects to be stolen and escaped, by making windows thicker or adding more doors, giving police more time to respond.

“They know they only have five, six minutes to get through it because after six minutes, the police come. So if they go to a museum… and they find out it takes longer than six, seven, eight minutes, they’re not going to do it.”

Kimmo Leyva, director general of the National Gallery of Finland, said financial realities meant difficult decisions.

“A strict everyday economy is, naturally, not the best basis for making the necessary investments To Mitigate potential threats,” Leyva said.