Stolen Louvre jewels were worth an estimated $157 million - and they weren’t insured

Paris: The Paris prosecutor said the crown jewels stolen in a dramatic weekend Louvre heist were worth an estimated €88 million ($157 million), but that the monetary estimate doesn’t include their historical value to France.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is leading the investigation, said about 100 investigators were now involved in the police hunt for the suspects and gems after Sunday’s theft from the world’s most-visited museum.

“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn €88 million if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” she said in an interview with broadcaster RTL.

“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”

It has also been revealed the stolen jewels were not covered by private insurance.

In a statement, the Culture Ministry said the state would not be reimbursed for the loss of items that have an “inestimable heritage and historical value”.

The statement, given to Le Parisien newspaper, explained that “the state acts as its own insurer when national museums’ works are in their typical place of conservation, given the cost of taking out insurance when the loss rate is low.”

Unlike private galleries, which would generally buy private insurance, national museums self-insure and assume the risk of loss from theft or fire, for example.

“In the event of a theft like the one that occurred on Sunday at the Louvre, national museums are left with nothing but tears.” Romain Dechelette, president of a French insurance firm, told Le Parisien.

Questions have arisen about the Louvre’s security – and whether security cameras might have failed – after thieves rode a basket crane up the museum’s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless royal jewels on Sunday morning.

“The Louvre Museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati told the National Assembly. “The Louvre Museum’s security apparatus worked.”

Dati said she launched an administrative inquiry that comes in addition to a police investigation to ensure full transparency into what happened. She did not offer any details about how the thieves managed to carry out their heist given that the cameras were working.

But she described it as a painful blow for the nation.

The robbery was “a wound for all of us,” she said. “Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has said the museum’s alarm was triggered when the window of the Apollo Gallery was forced.

Police officers arrived on site two or three minutes after they were called by an individual that witnessed the scene, he said on LCI television.

Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes in total, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre.

Nuñez did not disclose details about video surveillance cameras that may have filmed the thieves around and in the museum pending a police investigation. “There are cameras all around the Louvre,” he said.

The theft focused on the gilded Apollo Gallery, where historical diamonds are displayed. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the robbery was already over.

Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; and diadem and a large corsage-bow brooch, a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble, of Empress Eugenie, Napoleon III’s wife.

AP