The furniture elevator was attached to a truck stolen in Louvres, near Charles de Gaulle airport to the north-east of the French capital.
Experts have warned that even if police caught the gang, it was already too late to save the jewels which could have been broken up.
Dozens of DNA samples had been found at the gallery, including on helmets, gloves, angle grinders and a vest abandoned by the robbers.Credit: Getty Images
More than 100 detectives are on the investigation, with the Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police leading the inquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, this week told a French Senate Committee that no security cameras were monitoring the second-floor balcony where thieves gained access to the museum.
“Unfortunately, on the Apollo gallery side, the only camera installed faces west and therefore does not cover the balcony affected by the break-in,” she said.
The new details of the investigation emerged as the Louvre transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France.
Police officers examine a basket crane used by thieves.Credit: AP
French radio RTL reported that the transfer of some precious items from the museum’s Apollo gallery, home to the French crown jewels, was carried out on Friday under secret police escort.
The bank, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a massive vault 27 metres below ground, is less than a kilometre from the Louvre.
Detectives have yet to make an arrest over the embarrassing heist but speaking to Ouest France, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor whose office is leading the case, said that dozens of DNA samples had been found at the gallery, including on helmets, gloves, angle grinders and a vest abandoned by the robbers.
“More than 150 samples of DNA, papillary and other traces were taken,” she said. “The analyses require time limits, even if they are a priority for the labs. We are expecting feedback in the coming days, which may be able to provide us with leads, especially if the perpetrators were on file.”
Beccuau also confirmed that police had been able to use CCTV to follow the gang’s movements on two Yamaha TMax scooters out of Paris towards other areas, adding that video surveillance from public and private cameras “made it possible to follow their route in Paris and in neighbouring departments”.
She gave the strongest hint yet that the heist may have involved an inside job and confirmed police were investigating whether there was help from someone at the museum.
Beccuau said: “We obviously want to arrest the perpetrators as quickly as possible to recover the jewellery before their stones are possibly removed and the metals melted down.
“We are therefore exploring all theories. The possibility of complicity within the museum will be studied, as will all other possibilities.”
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Beccuau said that media coverage had given her the “small hope” that the gang “won’t dare move too much with the jewels” and that if police moved quickly, they could still recover them.
“I want to be optimistic. And that’s the hope that the investigators also maintain, hence their absolute and intense mobilisation.”
The Louvre has said it would not be commenting on the investigation.
CGI Group, an Israeli intelligence firm which previously helped solve a multimillion-dollar heist at the Green Vault in Dresden, Germany, has also been brought in to help.
Zvika Nave, chief executive, said he would not comment about its operations or clients.
“However, as an exceptional case, we were approached by parties connected to the Louvre museum to assist in identifying those involved in the robbery, as well as in recovering the stolen treasures,” he said.
“This request came in light of our experience and success in 2019 in solving the billion-euro Dresden museum heist in Germany.”
The Telegraph, London
