Louvre heist a 'deafening wake-up call' for museum security: auditor

Paris: Last month s spectacular Louvre heist, in which robbers made off with some of France s crown jewels, was a deafening wake up call for museum...

Paris: Last month's spectacular Louvre heist, in which robbers made off with some of France's crown jewels, was a "deafening wake-up call" for museum security, the head of France's highest audit institution said Thursday.

Upgrades to security at the world-renowned museum have been moving at a "woefully inadequate pace", Pierre Moscovici told a press conference to present the audit court's report on the Paris museum.

Instead, the museum has prioritised "high-profile and attractive operations" at the expense of security, the Court of Auditors said in its sharply critical report.

A four-member gang raided the Louvre, the world's most-visited art museum, in broad daylight on October 19, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102 million before fleeing on scooters.

The thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder below the museum's Apollo Gallery housing the French crown jewels, clambered up, broke a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display cases containing the treasures.