PARIS: The director of the Louvre on Wednesday admitted there was inadequate security camera coverage of the outside walls of the museum, three days after a brazen daytime heist stunned the French capital.

Senators grilled Laurence des Cars over how thieves were able to make off with an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) in jewels from the world-famous museum in just seven minutes. The heist has renewed scrutiny of security at French museums.

“Despite our efforts, despite our hard work on a daily basis, we failed,” des Cars told lawmakers in her first public statement since Sunday.

Des Cars said all alarms had functioned during the burglary, but admitted that security cameras did not adequately cover the thieves’ point of entry. “The only camera installed is directed westward and therefore did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in,” she said. “There are some perimeter cameras, but they are ageing,” she conceded.

Surveillance of the museum’s outside walls “is highly insufficient”. But she defended the museum’s 80-million-euro security plan, disputing a recent report that cited “persistent delays” in putting it into effect.

Earlier on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered “speeding up” security measures at the Louvre, after the Paris museum reopened its doors to tourists.

Des Cars said she had tendered her resignation on Sunday after the theft, but that the culture ministry had refused it. Museum-goers flocked to the institution for the 9am opening, though the Apollo Gallery — scene of Sunday’s theft — remained closed.

The thieves made off with eight pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.

The investigation “is progressing”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media on Wednesday, saying “more than 100 investigators” had been mobilised.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2025