The jewels stolen from the Louvre are worth an estimated €88m (£76m), a Paris prosecutor has said.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said about 100 investigators were helping the police find the suspects and the gems following the heist on Sunday from the world’s most-visited museum.
“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn €88m if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” she told broadcaster RTL.
“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”
It comes after France’s culture minister said the security apparatus installed at the Louvre worked properly during the theft, after questions emerged about the security and whether security cameras might have failed.
The thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a window open, smashed display cases and then fled with the priceless Napoleonic jewels.
“The Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” the minister, Rachida Dati. “The Louvre museum’s security apparatus worked.”
Ms Dati said she had launched an administrative inquiry, in addition to the police investigation, to ensure full transparency into what happened.
She described the heist as a painful injury for France, saying it was “a wound for all of us”.
“Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”
Read more:
How ‘one of the biggest manhunts in French history’ is unfolding
What will happen to the stolen jewellery?
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