At a museum in eastern France, two men disguised in wigs used a sledgehammer and a hammer to smash a display case and make off with a 2,500-year-old gold necklace; the heist took under four minutes. In a smash-and-grab at another French museum, three masked robbers stole 27 pieces of jewelry valued at more than $5.2 million. Those thefts took place in July. This week, thieves sliced through a fence and climbed through the window of a museum on the French Riviera and fled with two Renoir paintings. The rash of robberies, coming on the heels of last year's stunning jewel heist in France's most visited museum, the Louvre, show how the country is both blessed and cursed by its troves of treasure accumulated over centuries of conquest, per the AP.
France's passion for paintings, sculptures, ancient artifacts, and other valuables is a source of national pride. Thousands of museums that house collections help transmit France's love of culture and history from one generation to the next. The biggest also draw millions of tourists who boost the French economy. But keeping all that wealth safe is costly and difficult, and criminals see museums as soft targets. The brazen theft of $102 million worth of crown jewels from the Louvre's display cases was a wake-up call, but it was only the most shocking example of broader museum threats.
"When the jewels of a French king disappear, to be melted down ... it is tragic. It breaks everyone's heart," says Guillaume Poitrinal, head of the Fondation du Patrimoine, which funds the renovation and protection of French cultural sites. Especially frustrating: the fact that offloading well-known, stolen art is impossible through legitimate channels, so the paintings could prove to be worth little or nothing for the thieves. Meanwhile, European police agency Europol says museum heists are becoming more violent, with sledgehammers, axes, crowbars, and even explosives used for break-ins and to smash display cases.
Thieves also are increasingly targeting museum items with gold and other precious metals that can be melted down, and with gemstones that can be removed and sold, the agency said in a report in August. Some of the funding that the Fondation du Patrimoine provides, including for museums, comes from a national lottery. To help boost museum revenues, the foundation is also launching a pass that will grant subscribers access to 500 museums, monuments, and chateaus. "France is a country where we love passing the buck," says Poitrinal. "People say it is the state's responsibility or the city's responsibility. I say it's quite simple: It is everyone's responsibility." More here.
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