In a troubling trend, approximately 2,000 gold and silver coins worth about €90,000 were stolen during a museum heist at the Maison des Lumières in Landres, northeastern France. This incident occurred just hours after a high-profile theft of jewels from the Louvre, raising alarm regarding the security of France's cultural heritage.
The raid took place on a Sunday night, and museum staff discovered the destruction when they returned on Tuesday. The local authority noted that the coins were taken with remarkable expertise, reflecting a concerning pattern of thefts at cultural institutions across the country.
The stolen coins, ranging from 1790 to 1840, are part of a private collection found during renovations of the museum in 2011. This theft follows a recent robbery of six gold nuggets worth €1.5 million from the Paris Natural History Museum, and the abhorrent daylight heist at the Louvre, where thieves stole jewels worth €88 million, including a necklace gifted to Empress Josephine by Napoleon.
As evidence mounts of inadequacies in museum security systems, art experts suggest that thieves may be emboldened to target similar institutions. Louvre's director, Laurence des Cars, admitted to senators that their security cameras were outdated and insufficient, leading to the catastrophic breach that allowed the jewel theft.
France is now grappling with a significant threat to its cultural treasures, necessitating immediate re-evaluations of security protocols to safeguard its history from these alarming trends in theft.
