PARIS (AP) — Days later The thief stole 8 parts in just a few minutes A former bank robber has said he alerted museum staff to glaring weaknesses in French royal jewels housed in the Louvre. Some of the items were “easy” to attack, including a jewelry box by a window along the street.
David Desclos talks about who he was. A pro who knows how to silence an alarm. The reformed thief, who spoke to The Associated Press just outside IM Pei’s Glass Pyramid on Tuesday, said he placed warnings on gallery windows and nearby display cases years ago after the Louvre invited him to the Apollo Museum as a participant in its 2020 in-house podcast about the historic 1792 theft.
“Have you ever seen that window? It’s a no-brainer. You can imagine anything: disguised people slipping through the window,” he said, recalling that he spoke about the danger to a senior official (not the director) involved in producing the Louvre’s podcast. “There are many ways to get in, whether it’s through a window or through the roof.”
Then Sunday’s robbery happened. Two robbers wearing high-visibility jackets broke through the windows of the Apollo Gallery and used power tools to cut open the case, authorities said. 8 crown jewel items Some reports valued it at more than $100 million, but it disappeared within minutes. The ninth piece, Empress Eugenie’s diamond-encrusted crown, was found on the ground outside the museum, damaged but salvageable. two suspects were arrested; others are on the run.
“It’s exactly what I expected,” Descross said. “They came through the window… They came, they took them, and they left.”
Timing was part of the trick, he claims. “If you do that in broad daylight, during opening hours, that first layer of alarm is nullified…You know you have five to seven minutes before the police arrive.”
Smash and grabs are choreography, he says, and rehearsals and stopwatches and muscle memory.
Was the display case a weak point?
High on his list of weaknesses is the 2019 overhaul of Apollo Gallery’s display cases. With slicked-back hair and an unusually easy-going personality, DeCross says the old display cases were designed to safely drop treasures in the event of an attack. Newer ones without that functionality leave artifacts vulnerable.
In his words: “I don’t understand why they changed the case to keep the jewelry within reach. They make it easier for robbers to break in.”
The Louvre rejected such criticism, saying the new glass bottle is safer and meets modern standards.
And there was one glaring weakness. “When I saw that particular window, I thought they were crazy.”
Declo said he relayed these concerns to Louvre officials after the podcast was recorded and declined to elaborate on the vulnerability during the broadcast.
“I couldn’t have said, ‘Go rob,’ on the podcast. That would have given a lot of other people that idea,” he told The Associated Press.
The Louvre did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The Associated Press heard the podcast and confirmed Descro’s presence, but could not immediately confirm his account of alerting museum officials.
An ex-convict with a colorful story
If The Messenger sounds improbable, so does his resume. He grew up in Caen, Normandy, and began stealing food as a child before moving to department stores and banks, where he specialized in disabling alarm systems. In the late 1990s, he and an accomplice spent months tunneling through the city’s sewer system to reach the Société Générale bank vault at Christmas, prosecutors said.
Incredibly, Descross has reinvented himself as a stand-up comedian, performing a show titled “Hold Up” drawn from his past.
Despite his infamous past, DeCros insists there are no clues regarding the famous museum break-in.
Paris museum security calculation
Scrutiny of robbery It’s spreading. Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure is scheduled to speak to the French Senate on Wednesday about museum security and the broader threat highlighted by the theft.
The strain at the Louvre has been visible for months. In June, a spontaneous strike of staff, including security guards, unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing, and worker protests in what one union representative called “untenable” conditions forced the museum to close, leaving thousands of ticketed visitors stranded at the bottom of Pei’s pyramid.
As for the aftermath of the loot, Death Cross drains charm quickly. “There’s a 90 to 95 percent chance that the gemstones will be dismantled and put into blocks, stone by stone,” he says.
His prescription is straightforward. Please keep the original. Show replicas. “The real thing should be in the Banque de France,” he said. French media reported that after the robbery, the remaining crown jewels were moved to the central bank’s underground vault, where they were kept near secure national gold reserves and Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks.
“They should have listened,” Descross said.
