Have security guards' shifting remits left the Louvre vulnerable to a heist?

"As one of three agents in the room at the time, she said she had only just started her shift when they experienced what she described as "something very violent". There was a big noise, which at first she and her colleagues didn't understand. "It could have been, as is sometimes the case, a visitor who loses it," she said. "We then understood that it was a heist. In a few seconds we evacuated everyone who was in the gallery."

"He said you could see the two men struggling to cut into the cabinets with grinders and other tools, aggressively hitting the glass with elbows and shoulders and fending off two other security agents and, two minutes later, running for the window. Jewels fell on the ground. The men were then filmed, by helpless security agents, descending via the truck-mounted electric stairs they'd entered on and fleeing on scooters."

"Seven people have now been arrested in connection with the Louvre heist perpetrated on 19 October. Since then, the public prosecutor in Paris has announced that three suspects have been charged with organised theft and criminal conspiracy, and one with aiding and abetting. As investigators continue to search for the stolen items, much of the national and international focus has been on the museum's security protocols, but less so, on the situation that faces those in charge of implementing them day by day."

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the 19 October Louvre heist; prosecutors charged three suspects with organised theft and criminal conspiracy, and one with aiding and abetting. Investigators continue to search for the stolen items while national and international attention has focused on museum security protocols and the daily challenges faced by those implementing them. A Louvre security guard in the Apollo Gallery said she had just started her shift when a violent noise signalled the heist; staff evacuated visitors and closed intermediary doors. Video surveillance shows two men cutting into cabinets with grinders, hitting glass, and fleeing via truck-mounted stairs and scooters.

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