{"id":345292,"date":"2025-10-31T09:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/345292\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T09:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:53:11","slug":"for-museums-louvre-heist-shows-tension-between-security-and-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/345292\/","title":{"rendered":"For museums, Louvre heist shows tension between security and accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day after the stunning jewelry heist at the Louvre<\/a> in Paris, officials from across Washington\u2019s world-famous museums were already talking, assessing and planning how to bolster their own security. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went over a review of the incident,\u201d said Doug Beaver, security specialist at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, who said he participated in Zoom talks with nearby institutions including the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. \u201cThen we developed a game plan on that second day out, and started putting things in place on Days 3, 4 and 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar conversations were of course happening at museums across the globe, as those tasked with securing art asked: \u201cCould that happen here?\u201d At the same time, many were acknowledging the inherent, even painful tension in their task: Museums are meant to help people engage with art \u2014 not to distance them from it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing in museums is the visitor experience,\u201d Beaver said. \u201cWe want visitors to come back. We don\u2019t want them to feel as though they\u2019re in a fortress or a restrictive environment.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue many are grappling with \u2014 most of all, of course, the Louvre, whose director, Laurence des Cars, has acknowledged \u201ca terrible failure\u201d of security<\/a> measures, as have French police and legislators.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was crystallized in a letter of support for the Louvre and its beleaguered leader, from 57 museums across the globe. \u201cMuseums are places of transmission and wonder,\u201d said the letter, which appeared in Le Monde.<\/a> \u201cMuseums are not strongholds nor are they secret vaults.\u201d It said the very essence of museums \u201clies in their openness and accessibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Louvre wasn\u2019t built to be a museum<\/p>\n

A number of museums declined to comment on the Louvre heist when contacted by The Associated Press, to avoid not only discussing security but also criticizing the Louvre at a sensitive time. <\/p>\n

French police have acknowledged major security gaps: Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers Wednesday that aging systems had left the museum weakened<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Chatillon, France\u2019s chief architect of historical monuments, noted nonetheless that many museums, especially in Europe, are in historic buildings that were not constructed with the goal of securing art. The Louvre, after all, was a royal palace \u2014 a medieval one at that. <\/p>\n

\u201cFaced with the intrusion of criminals, we must find solutions, but not in a hasty manner,\u201d Chatillon told Le Monde. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to put armored doors and windows everywhere because there was this burglary.\u201d <\/p>\n

The architect added that demands on museums come from many places. \u201cSecurity, conservation, adaptation to climate change \u2014 they are all legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Museums have been focusing on a different kind of danger<\/p>\n

Even within security, there are competing priorities, noted attorney Nicholas O\u2019Donnell, an expert in global art law and editor of the Art Law Report, a blog on legal issues in the museum and arts communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always fighting the last war in security,\u201d said O\u2019Donnell. For example, he noted museums have lately been focusing security measures on \u201cthe very frequent and regrettable trend of people attacking the art itself to draw attention to themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell also noted that the initial response of Louvre security guards was to protect visitors from possible violence. \u201cThat\u2019s an appropriate first priority, because you don\u2019t know who these people are.\u201d<\/p>\n

But perhaps the greatest battle, O\u2019Donnell said, is to find a balance between security and enjoyment. \u201cYou want people interacting with the art,\u201d he said. \u201cLook at the Mona Lisa right around the corner (from the jewels). It\u2019s not a terribly satisfying experience anymore. You can\u2019t get very close to it, the glass \u2026 reflects back at you, and you can barely see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell says he\u2019s certain that museums everywhere are reevaluating security, fearing copycat crimes. Indeed, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin\u2019s state museums and was hit hard by a brazen robbery in 2017<\/a>, said it was using the Louvre heist \u201cas an opportunity to review the security architecture of our institutions.\u201d It called for international cooperation, and investments in technology and personnel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about creating a balance between security and accessibility<\/p>\n

Beaver, in Washington, predicts the Paris heist will spur museums to implement new measures. One area he\u2019s focused on, and has discussed with other museums, is managing the access of construction teams, which he says has often been loose. The Louvre thieves dressed as workers, in bright yellow vests.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about creating a \u201cnecessary balance\u201d between security and accessibility, Beaver says. \u201cOur goal isn\u2019t to eliminate risk, it\u2019s to really manage it intelligently.\u201d <\/p>\n

Soon after he took the security post in 2014, Beaver said he refashioned the museum\u2019s security and notably added a weapons detection system. He also limited what visitors could carry in, banning bottles of liquid. <\/p>\n

He said, though, that reaction from visitors had been mixed \u2014 some wanting more security, and others feeling it was too restrictive. <\/p>\n

Robert Carotenuto, who worked in security for about 15 years at New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art running the command center, says museums have become increasingly diligent at screening visitors, as they try to thwart protesters. But that approach alone doesn\u2019t resolve risks on the perimeter \u2014 the Paris thieves were able to park their truck right outside the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re just going to focus on one risk, like protesters … your security system is going to have a lapse somewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can stop the protesters … but then you\u2019re not going to pay attention to people who are phony workers breaking into the side of your building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preserving the magic of museums<\/p>\n

Patrick Bringley also worked at the Met, as a security guard from 2008 to 2019 \u2014 an experience that led to a book and an off-Broadway show, \u201cAll the Beauty in the World.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuseums are wonderful because they are accessible,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re these places that will put things that are thousands of years old and incomprehensibly beautiful in front of visitors \u2014 sometimes even without a pane of glass. That\u2019s really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tragedy of the Louvre heist, Bringley said, is that such events make it harder for museums to display all their beauty in a welcoming way.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt should be inviting,\u201d Bringley said. \u201cBut when people break that public trust, the Louvre is going to have to step up their procedures, and it will just become a little less magical in the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after the stunning jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris, officials from across Washington\u2019s world-famous museums…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":345293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,4219,12785,1033,84,171,169776,57,161594,1165,159024,405,403,169775,3715,167856,169774,8156,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-345292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dc-wire","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-district-of-columbia","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-franois-chatillon","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-laurence-des-cars","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-louvre-museum","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-city","22":"tag-nicholas-odonnell","23":"tag-paris","24":"tag-patrice-faure","25":"tag-patrick-bringley","26":"tag-theft","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115468173460824147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}