The Louvre seen tightening security with similar measures robbers took in October
The Louvre didn’t publicly comment about Tuesday’s security operation
In an effort to tighten up security failings, a crane could be seen lifting a freight lift to a window of the Louvre Museum on Tuesday, but this time it wasn’t jewel thieves.
After the world’s most-visited museum experienced a stunning heist in October, the Paris landmark is working to protect its items.
With the Louvre closed on Tuesday, maintenance workers in security helmets and high-visibility vests mounted a freight lift to a second-floor balcony to secure new metal bars outside a now-infamous window.
Investigators are still on the hunt for missing crown jewels worth $102 million.
The sight mirrored what happened Oct. 19, when a team of thieves posing as workers used a similar lift, then sliced through the window to enter the landmark’s Apollo Gallery. They grabbed tiaras, emerald earrings, a sapphire necklace and other treasures, and eight minutes later they were gone.
All four suspected thieves have been arrested and charged. But the jewels haven’t been found.
Samuel Lasnel of maintenance lift company Grima-Nacelles said he and his crew arrived before dawn Tuesday to carry out the high-profile window-securing operation.
“We have already worked at the Louvre — on the interior, on the exterior, inside and outside the pyramid — we’ve been here several times,” he told The Associated Press. “The Louvre knows us well.”
The Louvre didn’t publicly comment about Tuesday’s security operation.
The robbers’ haul included a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amalie and Hortense, and a pearl-and-diamond tiara belonging to Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugénie.
Footage from museum cameras showed that the two who broke into the ornate Apollo Gallery used grinders to cut into jewelry display cases.
The emerald-set imperial crown of Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum.
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