The French government has announced the implementation of a national museum and monument security plan, after investigators arrested and detained a suspect in connection with Friday’s theft of a Celtic princess’s golden necklace from a museum in Burgundy, reported Le Figaro.
The 10:30 am robbery on July 24 has shocked France’s museum world, because the stolen 2,500-year-old, 24-karat golden torque from the Vix Treasure archaeological site was a unique example of Celtic life in the region, offering clues into the 6th-century BCE princess who is thought to have worn it. Also, the perpetrators got away with their crime by simply acting like tourists. Around 10 a.m., they entered the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais—Trésor de Vix in Châtillon-sur-Seine with regular purchased tickets, and left the same way they came in. The identity of the suspect in custody and their alleged role in the robbery were not shared by France’s minister of culture, Catherine Pégard, who broke news of the arrest.
This latest museum heist follows that of the Louvre in Paris, where France’s crown jewels were stolen in October, and has prompted Pégard to announce the implementation of a national security plan today, which aims to protect over 3,000 French museums, monuments, and churches considered at risk. The new plan is helped in part by an existing €30 million ($34 million) in government funding for updated security equipment, and it takes into consideration input from recent parliamentary reports and Louvre audits, which found museums to be severely under-protected across the country.
The Friday robbery “underlines once again the need to reinforce security in heritage institutions,” states today’s press release. The Louvre theft, it adds, showed “in a brutal manner, the vulnerability of museums and spaces that conserve heritage collections,” as well as “new modes of operation” for criminals who strike in broad daylight, when nighttime alarm systems are deactivated. The plan therefore calls for 33 new measures, including temporarily taking “the most vulnerable” objects out of public display and placing them in secure locations until they can be safely brought back on view; providing special security training for museum leaders; and organizing regular museum security audits by an organization within the culture ministry.
In line with the current recommendations, what remains of the Louvre’s crown jewel collection is being kept in a safe and is expected to go back on display once it can be reliably exhibited. Since the theft on Friday, some experts have called on museums to remove highly valuable original objects from display, and to permanently replace them with well-made copies. But “copies of masterpieces, which some are calling for [to replace originals in storage] are not a real solution,” Pégard said. “Collections are made to be seen, and the mission of museums is to share them,” she added.
482 at-risk locations around France have already been subject to initial reinforced security measures, but much more needs to be done, including in terms of how museums prioritize the issue, according to Pégard. “A culture of security must take hold,” she told Le Figaro. That said, budgeting for many of the additional measures outlined in the plan remains unclear, according to Le Monde.
