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Louvre reopens after daring heist, museum director faces Senate grilling

22 October 2025 11:14 (UTC +04:00)

The Louvre reopened Wednesday three days after a shocking heist forced the museum to shut its doors to visitors, APA reports, citing France 24.

Louvre Director Laurence des Cars is set to face a questioning by a cultural committee at the French Senate later Wednesday amid questions over the security provisions at the world's most visited museum.

Des Cars, who has run the Louvre since 2021, has not made any public statement since thieves made off with royal jewels during a daylight robbery Sunday that took just seven minutes.

The theft reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month.

"The Louvre curator estimated the damages to be €88 million," or $102 million, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Tuesday.

But she said the greater loss was to France's historical heritage, adding that the thieves would not pocket the full windfall if they had "the very bad idea of melting down these jewels".

Scores of investigators are looking for Sunday's culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.

Beccuau confirmed that four people were involved in Sunday's robbery and said authorities were analysing fingerprints found at the scene.

Detectives are scouring video camera footage from around the museum as well as of main highways out of Paris for signs of the robbers, who escaped on scooters.