The Louvre’s security measures are in hot water after a major heist

While the investigation into the Oct. 19 heist at Paris’ Louvre continues, scrutiny is now focused on the museum’s security measures — or lack thereof. Considered one of the most significant robberies in museum history, the theft of crown jewels worth an estimated $100 million is not the Louvre’s first. And some believe it’s time to reinforce its defenses.

Several factors at fault

The elaborate robbery, which involved thieves dressed as workers and an electric cherry picker, has “raised significant questions about whether one of the world’s most famous museums could have been better protected,” said The New York Times. Much of the blame has been placed on the Louvre’s security camera system. The building’s exterior is “surrounded by cameras,” but there “were not enough officers to continuously monitor the feeds.”

Other factors include the museum’s ongoing construction, which experts say could have provided an opening for the thieves. Several “labor unions at the Louvre said they had warned that continual renovations, repair work and scaffolding for fund-raising events done on or around the museum made it hard for employees to spot suspicious behavior.” The “more we have exterior people working around the Louvre, the harder it is to differentiate who should be there,” Julien Dunoyer, a 21-year veteran of the Louvre’s security team, said to the Times.

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And there were warnings before the crime. The museum’s security systems were “rated as outdated and inadequate by an official report written before the theft of crown jewels,” said The Times of London. And several areas within the Louvre are not covered by security monitors. In the “Denon Wing, where the Apollo Gallery targeted by the robbers is located, a third of the rooms have no CCTV cameras,” though the specific room the thieves looted did have cameras, said officials.

The future

Security updates may happen not only in France but also in museums across the world, as the heist “should lead all institutions that hold valuable items to assess their security measures,” said Northeastern Global News. Even many “up-to-date technologies need to be assessed against the low-tech methods” that the Louvre thieves used. The robbery may “rewrite museum security protocols,” Nikos Passas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice and co-director of Northeastern’s Institute for Security and Public Policy, said to the outlet.

The Louvre does have planned security upgrades. But more simplistic ideas are available. While “modern museum security is a complex and expensive affair,” there’s also an “intriguing 50-year-old mathematical problem that deals with this very issue,” said BBC News. It involves calculating the “minimum number of guards — or equivalently 360-degree CCTV cameras — needed to keep a whole museum under observation.” As museums “look again at their own security in the wake of the Louvre heist, it can do no harm to be reminded of the lessons” this problem has to offer.