Police are searching for thieves who stole eight pieces of "royal jewelry" from France's Louvre museum. Robert Wittman, former senior investigator and founder of the FBI's National Art Crime Team, examines the case.

New York

Eight pieces of royal jewelry, including a tiara once worn by the wife of Napoleon III, were stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris during a daytime heist. The thieves, disguised as construction workers, executed the theft in seven minutes and escaped on mopeds, leaving behind significant forensic evidence.

Former FBI art crime investigator Robert Whitman noted that while the museum's security responded appropriately, the audacity and speed of the criminals made prevention difficult. He dismissed the idea that the jewels would end up with a private collector, citing his experience, and expressed confidence in the French police's ability to eventually solve the case due to the evidence and informant network.

Former FBI art crime investigator examines Louvre jewel heist

Police are searching for the thieves who stole eight pieces of, quote, royal jewelry from France's Louvre Museum, including a tiara worn by the wife of Napoleon the third. It happened during broad daylight while tourists wandered nearby. The robbers are still at large for more on this weekend's heist. Let's bring in Robert Whitman. He's this former senior investigator and founder of the FBI's National Art Crime Team. Robert, thank you for being here. My pleasure, Lindsay. It's great to be here. This heist happened in just seven minutes. How does that happen? Well, that's usually what happens in these types of heists where they're done in broad daylight like that, where people are going up a ladder and breaking into a window. They're going to have to get in and out very quickly, because if they don't, they're going to get caught. In this case, when I first heard about it on Sunday morning, I thought it was probably a must have been a very professional job and a well thought out and surveilled job. But, you know, learning more about it, they left a lot of forensic evidence that's going to be looked at very closely. And that's not a good thing if you're a criminal, because you don't want to leave all that evidence behind. What does this say about security at the Louvre? Well, you know, there wasn't any breaches of security. I mean, people blame the museum for that and that sort of thing. There's only so much you can do. I mean, these guys were dressed as construction workers. They were doing it in broad daylight, which was, you know, I was audacious. On a Sunday morning when the museum was open and there were people in it, the guards did respond, but they were pushed back and they were threatened by the thieves. So they're taught not to lose life. I mean, you know, property is property, but you don't want to lose life. That's more. It's most important. Secondly, their arms did go off. They were alerted. And these guys were brazen enough to do what they did, steal the eight pieces of jewelry and run out. And, you know, when that happens, you know, the police can only get there so quickly. And at that point, they had already been set up to get away on their mopeds. And they drove mopeds because that's how you get through the traffic in downtown Paris, you know, with the narrow streets. So really, the museum security was was up to par. It's just a case of if someone wants to do this, they can do it. If you had to guess what their motivations will be now, do you think that these jewels will end up in the home of a private collector? Do you think they'll split up the gems and sell them? Well, I think the last, you know, the very last thing that could happen would be that these would end up in the home of a private collector, because that's an old, you know, fallacy or fantasy that people have about stolen art being in some guy's, you know, basement. That was started back in 1962 with the movie Dr. No. And in that movie, James Bond sees a painting that had been stolen the year before from a museum in London. And he looks at it and looks at it like, oh, I wonder where that went. And ever since then, people have thought that there's this Dr. No hiding all this stolen art. But it's not true. I've never seen that in 35 years of investigations. If they split it up, do you think there's still I know you said they left behind a lot of forensic evidence. Do you think that there's still a way to catch them? Oh, yeah. The the French police in Paris have a brigade squad that they call the BRB, and it's the Brigade Against Bandits. And these guys are professionals. They know what they're doing. They've been around for quite a while. I worked with them when I was at the FBI. And quite honestly, they have informants all through the city, all through the south of France. So sooner or later, there's four people involved in this theft. These guys are going to talk to somebody and that information is going to come through. And once that lead comes in, it'll crack the case. All right, Robert Whitman, thank you for your time.

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