PARIS (AP) — Days after thieves took just minutes to steal eight pieces of the French crown jewels from the Louvre, a former bank robber says he warned a museum official of glaring weaknesses — including jewel cases by streetside windows that were “a piece of cake” to attack.
David Desclos talks like what he was: a pro who knew how to make alarms go quiet. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday just outside I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid, the reformed burglar said he flagged the gallery’s windows and nearby display cases years ago, after the Louvre invited him to the Apollo Gallery to weigh in for its 2020 in-house podcast about a historic 1792 theft.
“Have you seen those windows? They’re a piece of cake. You can imagine anything — people in disguise, slipping in through the windows,” he said, recounting that he told a senior official involved in the Louvre’s podcast production — not the museum director — about the risk. “Through the windows — even from the roofs — there are plenty of ways in.”
Then came Sunday’s heist. Authorities say two thieves in high-visibility jackets smashed through a window of the Apollo Gallery and used power tools to cut open cases. Eight crown-jewel items — valued in some reports at more than $100 million — disappeared in minutes. A ninth piece, Empress Eugénie’s diamond-studded crown, was found on the ground outside the museum, damaged but salvageable. Two suspects have been arrested; others remain at large.
“Exactly what I had predicted,” Desclos said. “They came by the windows … they came, they took, and they left.”
Timing, he argues, was part of the trick. “Do it in broad daylight, at opening time — that disables the first alarm layer… You know you’ve got five to seven minutes before police arrive.”
A smash-and-grab is choreography, he says: rehearsal, a stopwatch, muscle memory.
Were display cases a weak spot?
High on his list of weak points is a 2019 overhaul of the Apollo Gallery display cases. Desclos — who has slicked back hair and a larger-than-life personality — says older display cases were designed so that, in an attack, treasures could drop to safety; newer ones without that feature left the artifacts vulnerable.
As he put it: “It’s incomprehensible they changed the cases to leave jewels within arm’s reach. You’re making it easier for burglars.”
The Louvre has pushed back on such criticism, saying the newer vitrines are more secure and meet modern standards.
And then there was one glaring soft spot. “When I saw that specific window, I thought: they’re crazy.”
Desclos says he raised those concerns with the Louvre official after the podcast recording and avoided spelling out vulnerabilities on air.
“I couldn’t say on the podcast, ‘Go burglarize.’ That would have given the idea to many others,” he told AP.
The Louvre did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment. AP has listened to the podcast and verified Desclos’ presence on it but cannot immediately verify his account of warning a museum official.
An ex-con with a colorful story
If the messenger sounds improbable, so does his résumé. He grew up in Caen, Normandy, started stealing food as a child, moved on to department stores and banks, and specialized in neutralizing alarm systems. In the late 1990s, he says he and accomplices spent months tunneling through city sewers to reach a Société Générale bank vault at Christmas.
Incredibly, Desclos has reinvented himself as a stand-up comedian, performing a show titled ‘Hold-Up’ drawn from his past.
Desclos stresses that despite his notorious former career, he has no leads on the famous museum breach.
Security reckoning in Paris museums
Scrutiny of the heist is widening. Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure is scheduled to speak at the French Senate on Wednesday in a session on museum security and the broader threats highlighted by the theft.
The Louvre’s strains have been visible for months. In June, a spontaneous staff strike — including security personnel — forced the museum to close as workers protested unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and what one union representative called “untenable” conditions, leaving thousands of ticketed visitors under Pei’s pyramid.
As for the loot’s afterlife, Desclos drains the glamour fast. “There is 90—95% chance the jewels will be dismantled and stone by stone put in block,” he said.
His prescription is blunt: vault the originals; show replicas. “The real ones should be at the Banque de France,” he said. French media report that after the heist, remaining crown-jewel pieces were moved to the central bank’s deep vaults, sitting near secure national gold reserves and Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks.
“They should have listened,” Desclos said.