France examining DNA samples after Louvre heist
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This view shows a crane believed to be used in an alleged robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris on Oct 19.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS – French investigators are analysing dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints after this weekend’s daylight jewel theft from the Louvre museum
Up to “150 DNA samples, fingerprints and other traces” have been identified, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told the Ouest-France local newspaper.
She said their analysis was a priority and results within the next days would hopefully provide leads, especially if the culprits had a criminal record.
The thieves on Oct 19 clambered up the extendable ladder of a stolen movers’ truck and, using cutting equipment, broke into a first-floor gallery containing jewels.
They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but still made away with eight pieces of jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million (S$132 million).
The Louvre’s director on Oct 22 admitted they had taken advantage of a blind spot in the security surveillance of the museum’s outside walls.
But Ms Beccuau said public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves “in Paris and in surrounding regions”.
She said she hoped that, with all the media attention on the robbery, “the robbers will not really dare move with the jewels”.
“I want to be optimistic,” she said.
The director of the Drouot auction house on Oct 19 said he feared the jewels would be broken down into gems and precious metal to be sold, as they would be “completely unsellable in their current state”.
Items stolen include an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
The brazen theft that took place on Oct 19 has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.
Less than 24 hours after the high-profile break-in, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case. AFP
