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<\/div>\nDays after thieves took just minutes to steal eight pieces of the French crown jewels from the Louvre, a former bank robber says he warned a museum official of glaring weaknesses \u2014 including jewel cases by streetside windows that were \u201ca piece of cake\u201d to attack.<\/p>\n
David Desclos talks like what he was: a pro who knew how to make alarms go quiet. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday just outside I.M. Pei\u2019s glass pyramid, the reformed burglar said he flagged the gallery\u2019s windows and nearby display cases years ago, after the Louvre invited him to the Apollo Gallery to weigh in for its 2020 in-house podcast about a historic 1792 theft.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you seen those windows? They\u2019re a piece of cake. You can imagine anything \u2014 people in disguise, slipping in through the windows,\u201d he said, recounting that he told a senior official involved in the Louvre\u2019s podcast production \u2014 not the museum director \u2014 about the risk. \u201cThrough the windows \u2014 even from the roofs \u2014 there are plenty of ways in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then came Sunday\u2019s heist. Authorities say two thieves in high-visibility jackets smashed through a window of the Apollo Gallery and used power tools to cut open cases. Eight crown-jewel items<\/a> \u2014 valued in some reports at more than $100 million \u2014 disappeared in minutes. A ninth piece, Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s diamond-studded crown, was found on the ground outside the museum, damaged but salvageable. Two suspects have been arreste<\/a>d; others remain at large.<\/p>\n \u201cExactly what I had predicted,\u201d Desclos said. \u201cThey came by the windows \u2026 they came, they took, and they left.\u201d<\/p>\n Timing, he argues, was part of the trick. \u201cDo it in broad daylight, at opening time \u2014 that disables the first alarm layer\u2026 You know you\u2019ve got five to seven minutes before police arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n A smash-and-grab is choreography, he says: rehearsal, a stopwatch, muscle memory.<\/p>\n Were Display Cases a Weak Spot?<\/strong><\/p>\n High on his list of weak points is a 2019 overhaul of the Apollo Gallery display cases. Desclos \u2014 who has slicked back hair and a larger-than-life personality \u2014 says older display cases were designed so that, in an attack, treasures could drop to safety; newer ones without that feature left the artifacts vulnerable.<\/p>\n As he put it: \u201cIt\u2019s incomprehensible they changed the cases to leave jewels within arm\u2019s reach. You\u2019re making it easier for burglars.\u201d<\/p>\n The Louvre has pushed back on such criticism, saying the newer vitrines are more secure and meet modern standards.<\/p>\n And then there was one glaring soft spot. \u201cWhen I saw that specific window, I thought: they\u2019re crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Desclos says he raised those concerns with the Louvre official after the podcast recording and avoided spelling out vulnerabilities on air.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t say on the podcast, \u2018Go burglarize.\u2019 That would have given the idea to many others,\u201d he told AP.<\/p>\n The Louvre did not immediately respond to AP\u2019s request for comment. AP has listened to the podcast and verified Desclos\u2019 presence on it but cannot immediately verify his account of warning a museum official.<\/p>\n An Ex-Con With a Colorful Story<\/strong><\/p>\n If the messenger sounds improbable, so does his r\u00e9sum\u00e9. He grew up in Caen, Normandy, started stealing food as a child, moved on to department stores and banks, and specialized in neutralizing alarm systems. In the late 1990s, he says he and accomplices spent months tunneling through city sewers to reach a Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale bank vault at Christmas.<\/p>\n Incredibly, Desclos has reinvented himself as a stand-up comedian, performing a show titled \u201cHold-Up\u201d drawn from his past.<\/p>\n Desclos stresses that despite his notorious former career, he has no leads on the famous museum breach.<\/p>\n