A second French museum was the subject of a robbery, mere hours after the brazen US$100-million daylight heist at the Louvre on Sunday.
On Monday, municipal officials discovered that part of a display at the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot (Denis Diderot House of Enlightenment), located in Langres, France, had disappeared, according to local media outlets.
Thieves broke into the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot late Sunday night after breaking down the main gate of the Hôtel du Breuil-de-Saint-Germain, which houses the museum, the Washington Post reports.
In a Facebook post, the museum said it “will be closed to the public until further notice, starting this Monday, October 20th.”
“The reason? It turns out the museum was the victim of trespassing and an investigation is underway. We’ll keep you updated on the reopening of the site as soon as we know more,” the post added.
The museum, which is closed every Monday, did not have any visitors present when its security noticed that a sliding door had been forced open and a display case containing gold and silver coins had been broken into, Pierrick White, a senior local official, told BFMTV on Wednesday.
White said “not all of the gold and silver coins” in the museum were stolen.
“The gendarmerie, accompanied by our museum teams, are currently looking into things very closely,” White said. “The people of Langres as a whole were robbed by very malicious people. It’s a bit like the town’s family jewels that were stolen.”
The coins stolen — approximately 2,000 of them — were worth around €90,000 (C$147,000), the BBC reports.
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“Law enforcement officers were immediately alerted and went to the scene,” according to a press release.
“Accompanied by the site manager, they carried out a complete inspection of the premises. According to initial observations, part of the ‘museum treasure,’ a collection of silver and gold coins discovered during renovation work on the Hôtel du Breuil, which now houses the museum, has disappeared.
“The display case that protected it was found broken on the ground. The Museum’s teams are currently making a precise inventory of the items that they will hand over to law enforcement.”
No other works in the museum were affected during the robbery, which authorities believe was “a planned and targeted theft,” according to French newspaper Le Parisien.
No arrests have been made and the Hôtel du Breuil-de-Saint-Germain remains closed for an investigation. There appears to be no connection to the Louvre heist.
The news of this other robbery comes after the Louvre’s director acknowledged a “terrible failure” at the Paris tourist attraction following the daylight crown jewel heist over the weekend.
The world’s most-visited museum reopened Wednesday to long lines beneath its landmark glass pyramid for the first time since one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.
In testimony to the French Senate, Louvre director Laurence des Cars said the museum had a shortage of security cameras outside the monument and other “weaknesses” exposed by Sunday’s theft.
Under heavy pressure over a heist that stained France’s global image, she testified to a Senate committee that she submitted her resignation, but the culture minister refused to accept it.
“Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in,” she said.
Footage obtained by French outlet BFMTV appears to show two men escaping on a powered, extendable ladder as the basket slowly lowers to the ground outside the museum.
The men, one in a neon vest and the other wearing a motorcycle helmet, don’t seem to be in any rush as they make their escape from the Louvre to the ground on the stolen truck outside the museum, following the heist that lasted less than eight minutes.
Once they reach the ground, they’re no longer in view of the camera, but police said they escaped on motorbikes.
The footage is shot from inside the Louvre on Sunday, overlooking the Seine, according to the Telegraph. The original source of the video has not been confirmed.
The French prosecutor’s office said they are aware of the video, but declined to comment, citing the integrity of the ongoing investigation. The investigation is ongoing.
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— With files from The Associated Press
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