Catherine Field: Newstalk ZB's Paris correspondent says Louvre heist jewels will likely never be seen again

Experts now say it's unlikely the jewels, most recently stolen from the Louvre will ever be seen again.

The thieves rode a basket lift up the museum's facade, forced a window and fled with France's Crown and Napoleonic jewels - in just seven minutes. 

The museum had just opened on Sunday - local time.

Newstalk ZB's Paris correspondent Catherine Field says it's already been 24 hours, and authorities have no idea who they're looking for.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In France, Catherine Field, morning to you. Good morning, Mike,
seeve what's the big I was saying, as a sort
of musing out loud, what's the biggest scandal the fact
they've nicked some stuff or the fact they could actually
nick the stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, the fact of how they did it was pretty audacious,
isn't it. Mike? Coming nine point thirty on a Sunday morning,
Hiver's Jackets rolling up on a main street in Paris,
parking this truck, putting the traffic cones around it, then
putting the ladder up to the balcony and breaking into
sort of this is extraordinary stuff. I mean, we're used

(00:37):
to the movies, aren't we, where we see James Bond
use helicopters and laser cutters things like that. But this
was just a basic old fashioned smash grab, get out
and get on the road.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And the fact that I see, I get the cones,
I get the truck, I get the letter of people
haven't seen the pictures. They should because it just looked
like whitmen. But the part where they were slicing through
the window, nobody's thought, hmm, that doesn't look normal. Seems
the most extraordinary thing or that alarms didn't go off,
all lights didn't flash.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, first of all, if anyone knows Paris, they know
you do not have workmen on a Sunday morning, So
that should have had a few alarm belsering, wait, you
know what's going on here? Next thing, Yeah, that they
were able to get through that window long before the
alarms went off. Now, just to give you a bit
of context on this one, Mike, the Apollo Gallery is

(01:30):
very long and thin, and one of the star things
about this gallery when it was renovated and eighteen fifty
one was it had that window that looked out over
the sand. Yeah, this is supposed to be what they did,
so that was why that window's there, just to give
some light and to make it so wonderful. But you're
quite right, there were so many things that went wrong.

(01:52):
Why did it take so long for the alarms to
go off? Why did your visit this place is meant
to be hooked up to these central police station in Paris.
Didn't they think, wow, this is strange, someone's got a
letterer up the side of the louver or too many
questions to be asked, not least why was it that
in twenty twenty one, the new director of the LOUVER said,

(02:16):
security has to be tight, and this place is just
waiting to be robbed.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Have they got any clothes? They know where they're looking,
Where are these things?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
They have no idea what they're looking for. It's over
twenty four hours now. The state prosecutor here has said
the first forty eight hours will be crucial because up
till the end of forty eight hours the robbers will
be sort of looking to hide themselves. I mean, there
does seem to be some sort of possibility that they
will get DNA. Of course that DNA will come from

(02:47):
the crown which they dropped as they were trying to
get away. They will get some of that. They've also
found one of the Hiver's jackets, which obviously fell off
the back of the motorbike because they're driving away. They
think possible that this is people who knew what they
were doing, just the way they did at the time
and the speed with which they did it, that this
was an organized gang, had a carefully laid out plan,

(03:10):
and perhaps it even meant that they were stealing these
to order, so they'd get them somewhere, get the jewels
out and have them melted down so they could recast
them or sell them on.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
If they catch them, will they end up in the
cell next to Sarkozy.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, there's an other of them. You remember that big
heighs We had twenty sixteen Kim Kardashian ten million dollars
worth of jewelry, So maybe that one, But no Sarkozy,
former French President. He heads off to prison Tuesday morning,
our time first ever former head of the European Union
country to serve time behind bars. The last French head

(03:50):
of state to go behind bars was, of course, the
one who was the Nazi collaborator Pictar. Because he was
he signed the Armists with Germany. Were told that Miss
how Cozy will be there. Members of his family will
be there to show solidarity as he goes in the door.
We're also told he has told Le Figaro magazine that
he will take with them two books. One of them

(04:12):
will be a copy of Alexander Dumar's Count of Monte Cristo,
which just from memory, tells the story of a man
who escapes prison after being falsely accused of treason, and
is also going to take a new biography that's been
written about Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, we wish and well, nice to catch up, Catherine
appreciated Catherine Field in France. By the way, I'm reading
about AI in that particular part of the world. In
Europe generally, Europe is planning to triple the data center capacity. Now.
Is that interesting? Well, it sort of is because in
southern Europe about thirty percent of the population are situated
in areas with permanent water stress. So of course these
people build these things next to water and they don't

(04:48):
have enough water, so they don't have enough water currently,
So what are they going to do when all the
data centers arrive? Has anyone thought about that? And here's
the other thing. They seem asleep at the will. The
eu IS announced in the over the weekend that they're
twenty twenty seven they're going to have their anti drone
system up and running. So currently the war's going on.
The drone incursions are happening right here right now. Europe
busy going this is this Russian thing? Is this a problem? Yes?

(05:11):
It is? What should we do? I know, we'll find
something to fix it. By twenty twenty seve have they
been waiting for the funding for the drone Wall of significance.
I don't know, but it seems slow, doesn't it. For
more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
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