French Court of Auditors has, in a report, denounced the security at the Louvre Museum.
Pierre Moscovici, Head of the French Court of Auditors, asserted that last month’s spectacular Louvre heist, in which robbers made off with some of France’s crown jewels, was a “deafening wake-up call” for the museum security.
This came as Moscovici addressed a press conference about an audit of the Louvre Museum, conducted before the recent heist.
As he presented his body’s report on the Paris museum, Moscovici asserted that upgrades to security at the world-renowned museum have been moving at a “woefully inadequate pace.”
Instead, the Court of Auditors; France’s highest audit institution said in its sharply critical report that the Louvre museum has prioritised “high-profile and attractive operations” at the expense of security.
A four-member gang raided the Louvre, the world’s most-visited art museum, in broad daylight on October 19, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102 million before fleeing on scooters.
The thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder below the museum’s Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels, clambered up, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display cases containing the treasures.
The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.
However, they made off with eight other items of jewellery including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise.
Authorities have so far not recovered the stolen jewels but four people; three of whom are suspected of being directly involved in the heist, have been charged and detained.
The Court of Auditors’ report examined the museum’s management between 2018 and 2024.
The report found that only 39% of the museum’s rooms had cameras as of 2024, and a security audit begun in 2015, which found the museum was not sufficiently monitored or prepared for a crisis, only led to a tender for security works at the end of last year. “It will take several years to complete the project, which, according to the museum, is not expected to be finished until 2032,” the report said.
The report also highlighted excessive spending to buy artwork and post-pandemic relaunch projects, as well as missed revenues from inefficiencies and ticketing fraud, as contributing to the museum’s inability to fix its outdated infrastructure.
It concluded that management made investment decisions “at the expense of the maintenance and renovation of buildings and technical facilities, particularly those related to safety and security.”
It also highlighted “a persistent delay in the deployment of security equipment for the protection of the artworks” which the museum “failed” to address during the period under review.
The recommendations made by the Court echo the initial findings of an administrative inquiry following the theft.
Unveiled last week by Culture Minister Rachida Dati, those findings highlighted a “chronic, structural underestimation of the risk of intrusion and theft” by the museum and “an inadequate level of security measures.”
The Minister also asked the museum to review its governance and create “a new security and safety department at the presidential level.”
Louvre Management Respond To Report
The Louvre’s management said that it accepted “most” of the audit body’s recommendations, while maintaining that the report failed to recognise some of its actions on security.
It noted that the Oct. 19 theft occurred weeks before planned security improvements were to start being implemented.
The Louvre also said that it “regretted” that the report did not take into account the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the 2024 Paris Olympics, which the museum said impacted certain decisions.
A Louvre board meeting is scheduled for an emergency session tomorrow, Friday, November 7, 2025.
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