Two suspects arrested in connection with the brazen daylight theft of French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum have "partially" admitted their participation in the heist, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The suspects are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world's most visited museum in a shocking crime that took less than eight minutes to complete on October 19.
Beccuau announced during a news conference that both suspects face preliminary charges of theft committed by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy, and are expected to be held in provisional detention. However, she did not provide specific details about what the suspects admitted during questioning. The stolen crown jewels are valued at 88 million euros ($135 million), and thieves successfully forced open a window, cut into display cases with power tools, and fled with eight pieces of the precious collection.
The first suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010. He was arrested Saturday night at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Algeria with no return ticket. According to Beccuau, the man was living in Paris' northern suburb of Aubervilliers and was previously known to police primarily for road traffic offenses. "There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country," the prosecutor stated during her Wednesday afternoon briefing.
The second suspect, aged 39, was arrested Saturday night at his home, also in Aubervilliers. This individual was known to police for several previous thefts, and investigators discovered crucial evidence linking him to the crime. His DNA was found on one of the glass display cases where the jewels were housed, as well as on items the thieves left behind during their hasty escape. Prosecutors had faced a Wednesday deadline to either charge the suspects, release them, or seek a judge's extension to continue holding them.
Despite the arrests, the stolen crown jewels remain missing. "These jewels are now, of course, unsellable," Beccuau warned during the news conference. "Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods. It's still time to give them back." The prosecutor's plea highlights the international attention the case has attracted and the difficulty the thieves will face in attempting to profit from their crime.
The theft has exposed serious security vulnerabilities at the Louvre, prompting French authorities to acknowledge major gaps in the museum's defenses. The dazzling daylight robbery has turned into a national reckoning over how France protects its cultural treasures. Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate politicians that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak points in the museum's security infrastructure.
"A technological step has not been taken," Faure explained, noting that parts of the video surveillance network still use analog technology, which produces lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time. A long-promised security upgrade, an 80 million euro ($141 million) project requiring approximately 60 kilometers of new cabling, "will not be finished before 2029-2030," according to the police chief.
Faure also revealed a significant administrative oversight that has become symbolic of broader negligence: the Louvre's authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and was not renewed. This paperwork lapse occurred just months before the heist and has raised questions about institutional oversight of the museum's security protocols.
The police response timeline has also come under scrutiny. While Faure said officers "arrived extremely fast" after the theft, he acknowledged that delays occurred earlier in the response chain - from initial detection to museum security, then to the emergency line, and finally to police command. Remarkably, the first alert to police came not from the Louvre's internal alarm systems but from a cyclist outside the museum who called the emergency line after witnessing helmeted men operating a basket lift.
The theft has also exposed a significant insurance blind spot in France's cultural protection strategy. Officials revealed that the crown jewels were not privately insured, as the French state self-insures its national museums. This policy exists because insurance premiums for covering priceless heritage items are astronomically high. As a result, the Louvre will receive no insurance payout for the loss, meaning both the financial blow and cultural wound are total.
Faure pushed back against calls for quick security fixes, rejecting suggestions for a permanent police post inside the palace-museum. He argued this would set an unworkable precedent and would do little against fast, mobile criminal crews. "The issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert," he emphasized. Instead, he urged politicians to authorize currently prohibited tools, including AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking systems that could flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or equipment across city cameras in real time.
Former bank robber David Desclos, who spoke to the Associated Press about the case, described the theft as "textbook" and said vulnerabilities were "glaringly obvious" in the gallery's layout. His assessment underscores how the museum's physical design may have inadvertently aided the criminals in planning and executing their crime.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who has come under intense pressure following the theft, refused the Louvre director's resignation and maintained that alarm systems worked properly, while acknowledging that "security gaps did exist." She has kept many details confidential, citing the ongoing investigation. The museum was already experiencing significant operational strain prior to the theft, including a spontaneous staff strike in June involving security agents protesting unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing, and what unions described as "untenable" working conditions.
Moving forward, Faure announced that police will now track surveillance permit deadlines across all cultural institutions to prevent repeats of the July authorization lapse. However, he stressed that the larger security overhaul will be disruptive and time-consuming, requiring the complete replacement of core systems while keeping the palace-museum open to millions of annual visitors, and updating laws to allow police to act on suspicious movement in real time.
