Organised crime groups across Europe are increasingly targeting museums for jewels and gold, but police and art experts say while law enforcement often catches the thieves, they struggle to recover the priceless goods.

Paris

Museums around the world are heightening security measures after a daring robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where thieves disguised as construction staff stole nine pieces of crown jewels in under ten minutes. Authorities have recovered one item and are focusing their investigation on four suspects, while the incident has highlighted significant security staffing reductions at the museum over the past decade.

The heist has sparked global concern among art institutions, with fears that similar crimes could be attempted elsewhere. Experts warn that organised crime groups are increasingly targeting museums for valuable items, and while police often apprehend the perpetrators, recovering stolen treasures remains a significant challenge.

Museums around the world on high alert following Louvre heist

Mystery continues to swirl around the brazen daylight heist that's shocked the world. It's kind of like the Pink Panther, you know, the old Pink Panther movie from the 1970s. I don't know how they got in so fast. Outside the Louvre Museum, tourists still gather, unfazed by delays that may occur after robbers broke into the world's largest museum Sunday morning, stealing priceless crown jewels in under 10 minutes. Now in its second day, the men hunt a zeroing in on four suspects who disguise themselves as construction staff to rob the Apollo Gallery. Nine pieces were taken, but police managed to recover one item that the robbers dropped during their escape. The bold break-in has exposed serious security gaps at the world's most visited museum. At the Louvre, we've lost 190 posts in the past 10 years in the area of security and surveillance. When you eliminate professional posts, sooner or later there's a price to pay, and this time it's been a dramatic one. We faced something worse than a film scene. No one could have ever imagined we'd get to this point in the world's greatest museum. The high-profile heist is sparking global concern. Art theft is not a Hollywood story. The break-in at the Louvre is not something from Marcel Lupin or Ocean's Eleven. There are criminals, some of them violent offenders, and that should not be underestimated. There is nothing romantic about it. And they are afraid that local thieves will think, well, you know, they took it off with the Louvre, let's try our local museum. So that's the biggest fear now in the museum world. Organised crime groups across Europe are increasingly targeting museums for jewels and gold. But police and art experts say while law enforcement often catches the thieves, they struggle to recover the priceless goods.

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