Museum Security System at The Louvre Worked, French Minister Asserts

PARIS, Oct 22 (Bernama-dpa) -- Following the spectacular theft of historical jewels from the Louvre in Paris, France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati has denied problems with the museum's security system, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.

"Have the Louvre's security precautions failed? No, they have not failed. That is a fact. The security measures worked," Dati said during a question-and-answer session in parliament on Tuesday.

The museum was evacuated and shut down on Sunday after four masked thieves carried out a break-in at the Apollo Gallery, home to France's remaining crown jewels.

The thieves made off with eight "priceless" pieces of jewellery once owned by French queens and empresses.

"The checks on the functionality of the alarm systems are continuing," the public prosecutor's office in Paris said earlier on Tuesday.

According to the investigators' description of the course of events, at issue is whether the alarm was triggered immediately when the burglars entered the exhibition hall or only a minute before they fled through the window through which they had also entered the museum.

The historian and founder of the French online magazine on art history, La Tribune de l'Art, Didier Rykner, reported that the alarm system on the affected window had been flagged as faulty a month ago.

He referred to internal sources at the Louvre, one of them "in a very high position."

Whether the defect had been rectified in the meantime was unclear, Rykner added.

--BERNAMA-dpa