The Minister of Culture of France, Rachida Dati, has recognized the need to apply “urgent measures” to protect the assets exhibited in the Louvre Museum and has announced that this enclave will have “before the end of the year” with new “anti-intrusion and anti-theft devices”, with the aim of avoiding incidents such as the one that occurred on October 19.
Dati explained in an interview with TF1 that the administrative investigation carried out in recent weeks has shown “a chronic and systemic underestimation of risks”, alluding to deficiencies that date back 20 years. “We cannot continue like this,” said the minister, who has always defended that the current systems worked, although they could not prevent the theft of eight pieces of jewelry.
In addition, the Government wants the agents responsible for guarding the museum to receive “mandatory and systematic” training on security issues, as well as a reorganization at the internal level so that there is a specific direction in charge of these issues at the highest level.
Security forces have so far arrested seven people for their alleged connection with the robbery, although they have not located the missing jewels, which the Louvre management has valued at 88 million euros.