According to Beccuau, it was a cleaning worker at the National Museum of Natural History who noticed some small debris and one of those responsible for the institution then detected the lack of gold nuggets that used to be on display.
The pieces of gold came from Bolivia, transferred to the French Academy of Sciences in the 18th century, donated by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in 1833, from California, discovered during the gold rush in the second half of the 19th century and another nugget weighing more than five kilograms, discovered in Australia in 1990.
The Paris prosecutor clarified that the overall weight of the missing parts is approximately six kilograms, with an estimated value of 1.5 million euros, in addition to there being material damage of 50 thousand euros to the facilities.
“The historical and scientific value of these pieces was considered incalculable”, according to Beccuau’s statement, which adds that an angle grinder, a blowtorch, a screwdriver, saws and three gas cylinders were found at the site.
In the recording from the video surveillance cameras, the investigators saw a single person, shortly after 1:00 am, who left the museum at around 4:00 am on September 16th.
Through telephone tapping, it was determined that the suspect had traveled outside of France on the day of the theft and was then preparing to return to China, when she was arrested in Catalonia.
Meanwhile, the French Minister of Internal Affairs, Laurent Nuñez, decided reinforce security measures in all cultural establishments, following the theft of jewels from the Louvre.
A group of four men stole the precious pieces on Sunday morning, within a few minutes and when the museum was already open and with visitors inside, using a stacking machine, parked on the respective bank of the River Seine, and raising it to the height of a window on the first floor of the building.
The group took eight pieces “of inestimable heritage value”, including the tiara of Empress Eugenie (wife of Napoleon III, emperor from 1852 to 1870) and two necklaces.
That jewel alone has 212 pearls and 1,998 diamonds, according to the Louvre’s description, while the pieces belonging to Queen Maria Amélia have multiple sapphires and hundreds of diamonds.
This Parisian museum is the largest and most visited in the world, with nine million people enjoying part of the 35,000 works that the institution houses, in its 73 thousand square meters of space.
The Louvre has a long history of attempted and completed robberies: “The most famous occurred in 1911, when the Mona Lisa (oil painting, also known as “La Gioconda”, and attributed to the Tuscan and leading figure of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci) disappeared from its frame.
The incident was attributed to Vincenzo Peruggia and the masterpiece was recovered two years later in Florence.