Art crime investigator breaks down the brazen jewel heist at the Louvre

William Brangham:

Three of the four members of the so-called commando team, allegedly behind the brazen heist of the French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris are now in custody.

Seven people in all have been arrested after thieves posing as construction workers broke through a balcony window at the museum last Sunday morning, ransacked two cases of royal jewels and zipped off into the streets of Paris on motor scooters.

Despite the investigation's progress, there is still no sign of the stolen jewels themselves. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the robbery and attack on France's history.

So, to help make sense of the investigation so far, we are joined now from Amsterdam by art crime investigator Arthur Brand.

Arthur, thank you so much for being here.

French authorities say they have got seven in custody, four of whom they say are actively involved in this heist. But the jewels are still missing. From your perspective, how would you rate the progress of this investigation?

Arthur Brand, Art Crime Investigator:

Well, the French police is doing a great job.

These pieces were stolen not to sell intact, because they are known in the whole world. So their plan is or was to dismantle these crowns, these necklaces and sell the diamonds separately. So it was a race against time for the French police. And within a week, they got the first two. And now within 10 days, they got seven behind bars.

And two of them even already admitted that they were involved, which is a good sign. So I think the French police is doing a very, very good job.

William Brangham:

From the details of the crime, does it tell us something about these suspects? I mean, from your experience, are these professionals? Are they semiprofessionals? Are these clever amateurs?

Arthur Brand:

These are professional thieves. You don't wake up in the morning as a normal citizen thinking, let's become a thief and let's start with the Louvre.

These guys have done burglaries before. They have been caught before for other burglaries. Their DNA was probably in the systems, as what we know now. So they were professionals, but they made some mistakes. They left a few items behind, like a car, a helmet, and on those pieces they found DNA.

So, in general, we can say they have done this before. They are professionals, but in these days, if you sneeze, you leave DNA.

(Laughter)

William Brangham:

Exactly.

On those missing jewels themselves, from a criminal perspective, you said that there's no way they could sell the jewels themselves intact. So what are their options?

Arthur Brand:

Yes, well, their plan was to dismantle all these objects, to take off the diamonds and other gems and sell them separately. And there are thousands of small diamonds in these objects, and they are pretty common.

So you can sell them easily on the legal market, because they cannot be traced back to this robbery. There are also some bigger gems. They should be reshaped or cut into smaller diamonds, and they probably would go far away from France to countries like India or Israel or Qatar.

But, apparently, the French police has caught them in time, and probably these pieces are still stashed somewhere in a hiding place. And the French police is now putting pressure during the interrogations on these seven guys, telling them, look, you're going to go to jail, but if you tell us where all these objects are, we will reduce your sentence by half, at least.

William Brangham:

The Louvre itself has been under a lot of criticism for its lax security. Do you think that's a fair criticism? And I imagine major institutions around the world, in light of this, must all be going through a review of their security practices.

Arthur Brand:

Well, there isn't a museum in the world that has not been a victim of theft. Even the Louvre, in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen. So they have all been there.

And it is difficult, because you don't want to turn a museum into a fortress. The public should go and see all these treasures. They are often based in old or big buildings. We don't have armed guards in Europe. We don't want to have shootings.

So, of course, we should criticize the Louvre, because, in seven minutes, entering and leaving with the French crown jewels, that doesn't sound good. But it's difficult to protect a museum. And every museum in the world has been victim of this. And now the problem is, for all the other museums in the world, they have seen that the Louvre can be victim.

And they are all now a little bit nervous. They think, we have local thieves. They might think, if they can target the Louvre, don't we have a local museum, whether it's gold, silver or diamonds? So the panic is quite great at this moment.

William Brangham:

All right, Arthur Brand, art crime investigator, thank you so much for being here.