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PARIS—The audacious daylight heist of royal jewels from the Louvre Museum on October 19 has exposed a shocking pattern of negligence in the institution's security protocols, with a new state audit revealing vulnerabilities so fundamental they include basic password failures and chronic underinvestment. The report, released by the French Court of Auditors on November 6, painted a damning picture of a museum that prioritized high-profile art acquisitions and renovations over the indispensable safety of its priceless collections.

The severity of the Louvre’s security shortcomings was underscored by the revelation, highlighted by the report, that as recently as 2014, the password for the museum's CCTV network was simply "Louvre." Furthermore, access to software managed by defense contractor Thales used the equally simple default, "Thales." Although an audit in 2015 recommended urgent security upgrades, the museum’s own timeline confirms that the full modernization project will not be completed until 2032—a 17-year delay that the Court of Auditors head, Pierre Moscovici, called a "deafening alarm bell."

Chronic Underinvestment in Safety 

The auditors’ investigation, which covered the period from 2018 to 2024, found that the museum’s executive management consistently diverted funds away from technical maintenance and security. The Louvre spent approximately €105 million (around $115 million USD) on art acquisitions and renovation projects during this time, a figure that dwarfs the roughly €27 million ($30 million USD) allocated to facility upkeep. Only 39% of the museum's 465 exhibition rooms were equipped with surveillance cameras as of 2024, leaving approximately 61% of the immense, 190,000 square-meter facility as a "blind spot," according to the report. For comparison, the much smaller Detroit Institute of Arts is equipped with over 550 CCTV units.

The October heist saw four thieves use a ladder to scale the exterior of the museum near the Galerie d'Apollon, where the royal jewels were displayed. They smashed a second-floor window and made off with eight pieces in a mere seven minutes. Current Louvre director Laurence des Cars acknowledged in a parliamentary hearing that the museum was aware of "vulnerabilities in our museum's exterior security" even before the theft.

The auditors strongly recommend that the Louvre immediately scale back its art acquisitions, raise ticket prices, and fully refurbish its digital infrastructure. The report makes clear that the museum had sufficient financial resources but chose to invest in "visible and attractive" projects at the expense of its core responsibility: security. The pace of change, the report argues, is "far too slow," forcing the world's most-visited museum to face a decade-long wait before its security systems meet modern standards.

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