Laure Beccuau said ‘upper echelons of organised crime’ unlikely to be involved as one perpetrator remains at large
The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.
The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck outside the world’s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).
The audacious heist, carried out on a Sunday in broad daylight, has prompted a reckoning in France. Four people have since been charged, but the stolen gems, which include an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave to his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diadem set with 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds that once belonged to Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, are yet to be recovered.
At least one other perpetrator remained at large, the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, told the Franceinfo radio network on Sunday.
