France’s Louvre museum has put in massive steel bars over the home windows of the gallery thieves broke into in October.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Louvre is ready to get a multimillion-dollar safety overhaul subsequent yr after a brazen theft in October. Within the meantime, officers have resorted to a slightly low-tech answer. Here is NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: I’ve come out to see the latest safety version that the Louvre placed on this week, bars over the home windows the place the thieves broke in in October. And it is spectacular. It is greater than bars. They’ve actually put an enormous black iron gate over these two home windows.
However it should take greater than that to safe the 400-room former king’s palace. The thieves made off with greater than $100 million in French royal jewels. Eight suspects have been recognized, and a number of other are in custody, although the jewels are nonetheless lacking. The brazen daytime heist shocked France and revealed stunning lapses within the Louvre’s safety. Because it seems, the digicam surveilling these home windows was pointed the opposite method. So it didn’t choose up the truck that parked proper in opposition to the museum’s wall and the boys who clambered up the electrical ladder to the second-floor balcony, shaving treasured minutes from authorities’ response time.
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LAURENCE DES CARS: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: Talking in a tense two-hour session in entrance of the French Senate, Louvre director Laurence des Vehicles admitted they did not spot the thieves’ arrival early sufficient. She mentioned museum safety lately has centered extra on defending art work from paint-throwing activists. President Emmanuel Macron has introduced a $580 million renovation plan for the Louvre, which incorporates greater than $90 million for refurbished safety command facilities.
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BEARDSLEY: A cell police squad now patrols the roundabout in entrance of the Louvre’s iconic glass pyramid. 100 extra cameras are set to be put in across the museum.
STANISLAS PONCE: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: Parisian Stanislas Ponce (ph) is strolling by the Louvre on Christmas Day. He visits the museum usually and admits there is not a lot safety. Nonetheless, he says no person anticipated a theft like that.
PONCE: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: “However securing the Louvre is vital,” says Ponce. “Iron bars, cameras, no matter it takes,” he says. “It is the world’s most visited museum and one among France’s treasures.”
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR Information, Paris.
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