The Paris prosecutor announced that four more suspects have been arrested in connection with last month’s heist at the Louvre Museum in which thieves escaped with jewels worth $102 million.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is heading the investigation, said two men and two women are in custody who range in age from 31 to 40, according to The Associated Press.
The AP noted that Beccuau did not say what role the suspects are accused of playing in the historic heist.
Louvre director Laurence des Cars previously acknowledged there was a “terrible failure” in museum security and said, “Despite our efforts, despite our hard work on a daily basis, we failed,” The Guardian reported.
NEW DETAILS ABOUT LOUVRE HEIST REVEALED AS OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE STRICTER SECURITY MEASURES
Des Cars admitted that security around the Louvre’s perimeter was an issue and that the only camera monitoring the outside of the museum was facing away from the balcony that led to the gallery where the precious jewels were kept, according to reports. The Guardian also noted that des Cars confirmed all the museum’s alarms were functioning during the burglary.
Recently, des Cars shared the details of the museum’s heightened security measures with the Committee of Cultural Affairs of the National Assembly, the AP reported.
The Louvre director also shared that the robbers used disc cutters to get into the display cases to take the loot. She said that while the display cases were replaced in 2019 to protect against weapon attacks, the method used by the gang of thieves in the Oct. 19 heist was “not imagined at all.”
LOUVRE HEIST IN BROAD DAYLIGHT AMID APPARENT SECURITY LAPSES PUTS GLOBAL MUSEUMS ON ALERT
Beccuau has previously stated that the thieves appeared to use a truck-mounted lift, the kind movers use for heavy furniture, to get to the museum’s second floor where they were able to break into the Apollo Gallery in broad daylight and steal eight jewels valued collectively at 88 million euros, or $102 million.
The loot includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara, none of which has been recovered.
“We failed these jewels,” des Cars said, according to the BBC. The outlet also quoted the director as saying that no one is safe from “brutal thieves — not even the Louvre.”
Preliminary charges have already been filed against three men and one woman arrested in October in connection with the heist, according to the AP.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
