(PARIS) — The director of the Louvre in Paris addressed on Wednesday a new security breach at the museum while detailing plans underway to overhaul the facility’s security system in the wake of last month’s $102 million jewel heist.
Laurence des Cars, president and director of the Louvre, appeared before the National Assembly Culture Affairs Committee and was grilled about a new security breach that occurred at the museum last week.
Lawmakers asked the director how two Belgian influencers were able to hang a portrait of themselves on Friday in a gallery housing Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting.
Saying she wanted to “put things in perspective,” des Cars said the security breach was one of a string of incidents that have plagued the 232-year-old museum over the years.
“We constantly have incidents in the Louvre’s galleries. Two years ago, it was activists,” des Cars, referring to environmental activists who hurled soup on paintings, a tactic other museums around the world have experienced.
She said the new security apparatus being implemented at the museum will help staff head off such incidents in the future, including the installation of what she described as anti-intrusion systems.
Des Cars said a major security improvement will be the construction of a police station on the grounds of the Louvre.
The director said the police station is among more than 20 “emergency measures” that will be put in place “in the coming days.”
She said the security measures will also include the installation of 100 new security cameras at the Louvre, including cameras to monitor the perimeter of the museum that were severely lacking during the Oct. 19 jewel heist.
The creation of a security coordinator position is also part of the security boost, des Cars said. She also said two galleries that were recently closed will get a security upgrade before they reopen.
Des Cars said the “appalling irony of the situation” is that the Louvre jewel heist occurred as many of the security improvements were being made. She said that between 2022 and 2025, 134 digital cameras were installed throughout the museum as part of a $933 million “Louvre New Renaissance” plan.
“I want to instill a genuine security culture,” said des Cars, adding that she has been calling for the security upgrades since she became the museum’s director in 2022.
Since the robbery at the Louvre, several security issues have emerged, highlighting concerns about the world’s most visited museum.
Among the revelations was that a single perimeter security camera outside the Louvre was not facing the Apollo Gallery, where the robbers used a truck-mounted mechanical cherry picker to reach the gallery and power tools to cut their way in. Earlier this month, a museum employee with knowledge of the security system revealed that the password for the museum’s video surveillance system was simply “Louvre.”
On Monday, the Louvre announced that a public gallery and several offices were being temporarily closed because they had become structurally fragile.
Four suspects have been arrested and charged in the October robbery, but the eight pieces of the French crown jewel collection swiped from the Apollo Gallery have not been recovered, authorities said.
French investigators said the jewel heist from start to getaway took seven minutes.
Prosecutors have not ruled out making more arrests in the case, but said investigators have yet to find any evidence implicating members of the museum staff in the robbery.
ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
