The air of criminal mystique has been dispelled somewhat in the weeks following the October 18 heist that saw $102 million of crown jewels stolen from the Louvre in broad daylight. The suspects fumbled an entire crown during their escape, before trying and failing to light their mechanical lift on fire as a diversionary tactic. Arsène Lupin would be appalled.
How exactly, then, did the most renowned gallery in France find itself pillaged by a cadre of buffoons in high visibility vests? Reporting from French newspaper Libération indicates the theft is less of an anomaly than we might expect, as the Louvre has suffered from over a decade of glaring security oversights and IT vulnerabilities.
