French police officers stand in front of the Louvre Museum after robbery, in Paris on October 19, 2025. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP)
Paris, France: "Systemic failures" led to the $100-million robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris last year, MPs leading an inquiry said on Thursday, raising pressure on embattled director Laurence des Cars.
Presenting an interim assessment of their work after 70 hearings, inquiry leaders Alexandre Portier and Alexis Corbiere openly questioned why des Cars remained in her position.
"The Louvre theft is not an accident. It reveals systemic failures at the museum," Portier told a press conference, adding that the institution had been "in denial about risk".
Saying that management "is currently failing", he underlined that "in quite a few countries and institutions" this would have led the director to step down.
Des Cars offered her resignation shortly after the October 19 break-in, but it was refused by President Emmanuel Macron, who named her to the position in 2021.
The inquiry, which is headed by opposition party MPs, is set to audition des Cars and Culture Minister Rachida Dati next week.
Set up in early December, the commission will deliver its findings in early May.
"What is striking is to see that the Louvre has become a state within the state," Portier added, calling on the culture ministry to intervene more directly in the running of the institution.
The French culture ministry has ordered its own internal audit of the robbery, while Senators are also holding hearings into the heist which captivated France and many people abroad.
Four suspects are in police custody, including the two suspected thieves, but the eight stolen items of French crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million have not been found.
