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Police in Paris have arrested five more suspects over the dramatic jewel heist at the Louvre museum, though the stolen royal gems have yet to be recovered.
The arrests on Wednesday night, confirmed by Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau on RTL radio, take the total number of suspects held to seven in connection with the smash-and-grab raid of €88mn in jewels that once belonged to French queens.
The first two men held over the weekend, suspected of being among the four directly involved in the break-in at the Louvre’s Apollon Gallery through an upstairs window, were formally charged on Wednesday and are being held in pre-trial detention.
Beccuau said on RTL that it was “too soon” to give details on the profiles of the five new suspects in custody, but said they were persons “who may be able to provide us with information about how these events unfolded”.
The latest arrests took place simultaneously across Paris on Wednesday night, according to RTL. However, Beccuau said they did “not lead to the recovery of the jewellery”.
“This office is currently examining the entire legal market for works of art,” she said. “On the other hand, there are a number of parallel markets that this office’s experts know how to explore, and there too we remain vigilant.”
The break-in at one of the world’s most famous museums in broad daylight has shocked art lovers and cast doubts on the state of the museum’s security. The Louvre was closed to the public for two days following the raid, but has since reopened.
At a press event on Wednesday, Beccuau announced that two men suspected of breaking into the gallery had partially admitted their involvement in the burglary.
She said one was a 34-year-old Algerian man, detained while attempting to leave the country from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, while the other, a 39-year-old from Aubervilliers on the outskirts of Paris, was arrested near his home. Both had a history of committing thefts.
She hailed “major advances” in the investigation and said that police had analysed more than 150 DNA traces left at the scene of the break-in on October 19.
The crimes came with a potential punishment of up to 15 years in jail for organised theft and 10 years for criminal association, Beccuau said, and hefty fines.
While the jewels had yet to be recovered, she added, “I want to keep the hope that they will be found and returned to the Louvre museum and, more broadly, to the country.”
Beccuau also provided more information on the van used by the group to enact the crime, which she said had been stolen on October 10 from the small town of Louvres north-east of Paris.
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