Today's Edition
Paris (dpa)
Nearly a month after thieves stole jewellery worth 88 million euros (about $100 million) from the famous Louvre museum in Paris, France's interior minister has not given up hope that the loot can be recovered.
"As long as we have no proof that it has been sold, I remain confident," Laurent Nuñez told the Sunday edition of the newspaper La Tribune.
He noted that authorities have presumably caught three of the four members of the burglary gang.
To date, several suspects have been arrested and preliminary investigations are under way against three men allegedly involved in the burglary and one woman for aiding and abetting.
Heist with furniture lift and motor scooters
The robbery on October 19 made international headlines. The masked men parked a truck next to the museum that was equipped with a lifting platform, typically used to get furniture into flats in Paris.
While two of the perpetrators waited on the street with scooters, the other two used the lifting platform to reach a first-floor balcony and from there entered the museum through a window, where they threatened staff.
The thieves fled on the scooters with eight precious pieces of jewellery belonging to former queens and empresses, including tiaras, necklaces, earrings and brooches studded with precious stones.
The crown of Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), decorated with emeralds and hundreds of diamonds, was also among the loot, but was later found damaged near the Louvre after the perpetrators lost it during their escape.
Beyond the material value of the stolen jewellery, the French Interior and Culture Ministries said the goods had an "inestimable cultural and historical value."
