The nine objects stolen from the Louvre are worth $102 million, a Paris prosecutor said on Tuesday—less than three days after French authorities claimed they were of “incalculable” value.
But Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor in charge of investigating the heist, said that figure also doesn’t account for the jewels’ worth to France, where the heist has captured the attention of both the public and politicians alike.
“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn 88 million euros if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” Beccuau said in an interview with RTL. “We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”
Those jewels include a diadem worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, an emerald necklace donned by the Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem once held by the Empress Eugénie. The last of which includes nearly 2,000 diamonds alone.
One of the items that was stolen, a crown belonging to Empress Eugénie, was recovered by investigators because it had been dropped by the thieves. The rest of the objects taken on Sunday have not yet been recovered—and may never be.
The robbers are reported to have entered the Louvre’s windows using what authorities described as “small chainsaws.” They entered and exited the museum in under eight minutes.
The Louvre, which has remained closed since Sunday, has weathered bitter criticism since the heist, in part because one leaked audit suggested that many of the museum’s security cameras did not work. On Tuesday, speaking before the National Assembly, cultural minister Rachida Dati denied that the museum’s security systems were the problem.
“The Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “The Louvre museum’s security apparatus worked.”
She said that the heist left behind “a wound for all of us” because “the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”
The museum, like most others across the globe, does not publicly release monetary valuations for objects in its collection. But if the jewels really are worth $102 million, that means they are of significantly less value than other great pieces held by the Louvre.
The Mona Lisa, the Leonardo da Vinci painting that was itself stolen on one occasion, is commonly thought to be worth at least $1 billion, if not far more than that.
