Police are no closer to recovering the gems, despite the arrest of two men last week
Two men arrested on suspicion of stealing crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m) from the Louvre in Paris have “partially admitted” their role in the heist, the prosecutor has said, but police are no closer to recovering the gems.
Laure Beccuau said the pair, arrested on Sunday, would be brought before magistrates “with a view to being charged with organised theft, which carries a 15-year prison sentence, and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 10 years”.
Beccuau told a media conference on Wednesday, hours before the two men had to be either charged or released, that the jewels “are not in our possession”. But, in an apparent appeal to the thieves, she added: “There is still time to give them back.”
The treasures were “clearly unsellable” as they were, she said. “Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she told journalists, adding she “would like to hope” they would be recovered “for the Louvre and for the nation”.
