We and our partners do the following data processing based on your consent: store and/or access information on a device, personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Art crime detective Arthur Brand warns: 'All museums have been, and will be, victims of theft' To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
François Picard is pleased to welcome art crime detective Arthur Brand. "In the old days they stole a painting, but a painting is unique; you cannot cut it in two," explains Brand, "In the last 10 years they have been targeting more and more objects made of gold, silver". He examines the transformation of international art theft, warning that increasingly sophisticated criminal opportunism is shifting attention from irreplaceable paintings towards precious metals and gemstones that can be dismantled, melted down or dispersed.
He identifies a disturbing proliferation of copycat museum robberies across Europe, fuelled by the apparent ease with which criminals penetrated the Louvre and escaped within minutes. Challenging the popular 'Hollywood' mythology of elaborate criminal masterminds, he instead describes a landscape shaped by opportunism, institutional security failures and the lucrative disposability of stolen cultural treasures. The spectacular theft of €90 million worth of jewels from the Louvre have exposed vulnerabilities extending far beyond the security of France's most celebrated museum.
While estimating the chances of recovering the missing jewels at "50-50," Brand suggests that French investigators may know considerably more than they have publicly disclosed. His assessment raises broader questions about the protection of cultural heritage in an era when the commercial value of stolen objects may increasingly outweigh their historical and artistic significance. Louvre's $100 million crown jewels still missing one year after daring heist Louvre boss warns of closure risk unless museum is 'repaired, updated and transformed' Louvre gallery where jewellery heist took place to reopen to public Raphaël Glucksmann, the man who wants to be French president Reporters## 'Thanks a lot, Trump': Wyoming conservatives divided ahead of US midterms Access Asia## Indonesia's forest fires spark public health crisis across Southeast Asia Press Review## France to witness a 'crossroads of anger' as mass protests expected on Saturday Focus## How books are being scanned and destroyed to train artificial intelligence Talking Europe## 'America, with this president, is not our ally.
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