A video has emerged showing the alleged thief behind the Louvre heist escaping up a mechanical ladder in broad daylight.
Two men are seen looking around as they slowly make their way downstairs minutes after breaking into a famous Paris museum and stealing €88m (£77m) worth of France’s crown jewels.
The gang of four thieves has not been caught and on Wednesday, the Louvre’s boss admitted that staff failed to spot the robbers early because there was only one camera in the gallery where the objects were displayed.
In the video, a truck equipped with a ladder can be seen parked on a busy road that runs alongside the Seine as vehicles pass by.
Laurence des Cars told French MPs that the Louvre plans to double the number of CCTV cameras in and around the museum.
She admitted that in Apollo’s gallery, a camera trained on the south room where the jewels were kept was facing the wrong way.
“The Louvre has a weakness and I fully admit it,” said Des Cars.
Paris city prosecutor Laure Becuot told the Ouest France newspaper that 150 DNA samples and fingerprints have been obtained so far as part of the police investigation.
The robbers pulled off the heist less than eight minutes after the Louvre opened its doors to the public at 09:30 a.m. (06:30 GMT) on Sunday.
They stole eight items, including an emerald necklace and earrings given to his second wife Marie-Louise as a wedding gift by Napoleon Bonaparte.
As they fled, they dropped Empress Eugenie’s 19th-century diamond-encrusted tiara.
Although it was recovered, the crown was damaged and Des Cars said it was probably crushed because the thieves prized it out of its display case.
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