Two men suspected of making off with €88m (£75m) worth of crown jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris last October have reportedly told investigators that the alleged mastermind behind the heist was disappointed by the haul and thought “they could have taken more”.
The French newspaper Le Monde cited transcripts of the alleged thieves’ questioning last month by two investigating judges in charge of the inquiry, offering detailed insights into the burglary that made global headlines and led the museum’s director to resign.
According to the account seen by the newspaper, the suspects, named locally as Abdoulaye N and Ghelamallah A, claimed they had broken into the Louvre’s Apollo gallery on the orders of a client they refused to name out of fear for their families.
The duo seized eight pieces of jewellery including tiaras, a brooch, necklaces and earrings. But during their escape, the suspects dropped a gem-encrusted crown worn in the 19th century by Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.
“Yes, it was me, it fell out of my bag,” Abdoulaye N is said to have admitted, adding, as the judges showed him a photograph of the badly damaged crown: “What we did wasn’t right, it’s very serious.”
He said the pair had handed over the remaining loot to the alleged mastermind, who “wasn’t happy” with the outcome. “He thought we could have taken more,” he told investigators.
Both men said they had been hired only two or three days before the break-in and had been presented with a video filmed inside the gallery that showed the cases with the Napoleonic jewellery, to prepare them for the heist.
Abdoulaye N was quoted as saying that they were given a clear mission: “Break windows and retrieve jewellery from inside the display cases.”
A former minor social media star with a passion for motorbikes, Abdoulaye N said he had been “in dire straits” financially, and was promised €15,000-€20,000 for his role in the burglary. “Maybe more, depending on how much money it would bring in.”
He said the alleged client’s motivation had been financial and that he had planned to resell the stolen jewels.
“I knew I was going to rob the Louvre,” Abdoulaye N is quoted as telling investigators, while Ghelamallah A said he had not known about the target, which he said was initially presented to him as “a jewellery store where they make jewellery in Paris” and not the most visited museum in the world.
“I would never have set foot there if I had known,” he said, saying he had agreed on a fee of between €20,000 and €25,000.
After gaining access to a first-floor balcony via a furniture lift, the duo allegedly broke through the window of the Apollo Gallery, entered the museum and began cutting out the windows of two display cases.
“When we got in, there was no one there, it was dark, only the lights in the display cases were on,” Abdoulaye N is quoted in the report as saying. “In the distance, I could see security moving around, behind a door, or something.”
He said he had been aware they were racing against the clock.
“We had to take as much jewellery as we could,” he said. “If we take more than three minutes, we know we have to leave, otherwise we’ll be reported. For me, what we did was taking too long.”
Both Abdoulaye N and Ghelamallah A said they did not know what had become of the jewels since but refused to give investigators clues to the identity of the mastermind or any accomplices out of fear of reprisals.
“They’re no choirboys,” Ghelamallah A said. Abdoulaye N was equally cautious: “I wasn’t threatened, but I received calls from outside [while in detention]. They told me to keep quiet.”
Le Monde said investigators have not confirmed the burglars were acting on anyone’s behalf.