Louvre installs bars over robbed gallery window

Le Monde with AFP

The Louvre Museum on Tuesday, December 23, installed metal bars over the windows of the Galerie d'Apollon, where thieves broke into the Paris landmark to make off with crown jewels in a recent daylight robbery.

"This is one of the emergency measures decided after the theft," the museum's Deputy Administrator Francis Steinbock told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Early in the morning, workers on the gallery balcony helped position a large grille hoisted by a crane to secure it to the gallery's tall French door windows.

"We had committed to doing it before the end of the year," Steinbock said, adding that discussions were ongoing regarding "securing the other windows."

Louvre Director Laurence des Cars told lawmakers last week that a grille would be reinstalled "before Christmas," noting that one had been removed in 2003-2004 during restoration work on the Galerie d'Apollon.

The bars are the latest measure put in place in recent months as the security standards at the world's most visited museum in Paris are facing intense scrutiny following the October heist when thieves stole jewellery worth an estimated $102 million.

A police unit has been deployed at the museum and a project for increased video surveillance is underway, Steinbock said. Last week, the Louvre also announced the completion of anti-intrusion measures around the museum.

The October 19 robbery saw thieves park a truck with an extendable ladder below the Galerie d'Apollon housing the French crown jewels. They clambered up, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display booths containing the treasures, which remain missing.

Le Monde with AFP