Woman, 38, charged over role in plot to steal priceless gems from Louvre Museum

A 38-year-old woman was charged on Saturday for her part in the plot to steal nearly €100 million worth of gems from the Louvre Museum in central Paris.

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Police investigating the raid on 19 October said the woman from La Corneuve, northern Paris, faces charges of complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime.

The woman, who was arrested on Wednesday along with four other suspects, will appeared before a magistrate who will decide on whether she will remain in custody.

On Friday, police released a man who was among the four other people who were arrested along with the 38-year-old woman.

"In these serious criminal cases, we find that the waves of arrests are more like drift nets," his lawyers Sofia Bougrine and Noémie Gorin, told the French news agency AFP.

DNA leads and video trail drive search for stolen Louvre crown jewels

Two men, aged 34 and 39, who were arrested on 25 October have partially admitted their part in the raid, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau revealed on Wednesday.

The younger man was detained at Roissy Airport as he was preparing to travel on a one-way ticket to Algeria. The other man was arrested in Aubervilliers, northern Paris.

Heist of the century

Four people took less than eight minutes to steal the jewels. They used a basket lift to scale the Louvre's façade and forced open a window.

Once inside the Galérie d'Apollon, they smashed display cases and made their way back out before speeding away on scooters.

“If such a spectacular theft took place, it's a failure — a failure for everyone,” said Culture Minister Rachida Dati during a two-and-a-half hour session with the Senate's culture committee on Tuesday night.

Security questions raised after Louvre heist of 'unsaleable' royal jewels

“There were indeed security breaches and we will have to address them. Such an event cannot go without consequences or immediate action. We cannot just say: 'Move along, nothing to see here.'”

Beccuau ruled out help from inside the museum but admitted the possibility of “a wider network involving a mastermind or potential recipients”.

“The jewels are, as I speak to you, not yet in our possession,” she added. “I want to remain hopeful that they will be recovered.”

Louvre remains shut for a second day as police hunt jewel heist gang

Just before Beccuau outlined the developments in the investigation into the theft, Paris' top police officer Patrice Faure told French senators that ageing security systems and delays to upgrade them had compromised the gallery.

“A technological step has not been taken,” he said. He told senators that parts of the video network were still analog and produced lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.

A long-promised revamp — a €90 million project requiring roughly 60km of new cabling – would not be finished before 2029–2030, he said.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre's alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialled the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.

“Officers arrived extremely fast,” Faure said, but he added the lag occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.

Search for solutions 

Faure pushed back on quick fixes. He rejected calls for a permanent police post inside the museum, warning it would set an unworkable precedent and do little against fast, mobile crews.

“I am firmly opposed,” he said. “The issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert.”

He urged lawmakers to authorise tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.

On Friday, Dati said streetside anti-ramming and anti-intrusion devices would be installed around the museum within the next two months.

(With newsires)