The robbery of $102 million worth of jewels from the Louvre by French thieves, the capture of several, and the subsequent media response have sparked reactions from members of the French exchange and greater community at Latin, igniting opinions about experiences with security at the famous museum and the importance of preserving historical art.

On a quiet Sunday morning in Paris, two masked thieves broke into the Apollo wing of the Louvre, using a glass cutter and a mechanical furniture lift to steal eight historic French jewels in only seven minutes. With French exchange students in classrooms throughout the school, Upper School French teacher and leader of the French exchange Julie Cousin and students who have participated in the French exchange have recounted their visits to the museum. They have discussed their experiences with the security at the Louvre and their brief encounters with the jewels before they were stolen, and have reflected on the impact of the robbery.

Comments on the unreliable surveillance in the museum champions the reactions of those who have visited the Louvre. Junior Sofie Munive recalled a shocking lack of security while visiting the Louvre during the French exchange last year.

“When we went in, nothing was guarded,” Sofie said. “There were people circling around the rooms [in case] you were lost, but nothing was being guarded severely.”

Alumni Engagement Coordinator Ashlyn Pope visited the museum last year, where she recounted a more chaotic experience with security, demonstrating the disorderly nature of the security presence throughout the museum.

“They actually had security alarms go off, and the overhead speaker was only in French, so none of my friends knew what was going on,” Ms. Pope said. “We don't speak French, and we were going up to security guards and asking, ‘What's going on,’ and they said they didn’t know.”

The difficulty of constantly monitoring such an old and large building heightens the Louvre’s lack of a dependable security presence.

“I mean, the building is so big that I don't really know how high tech you can get,” Madame Cousin said. “I don't feel like [the Louvre is] like [how it’s portrayed in] the movies. It's not Mission Impossible with detectors everywhere.”

Madame Cousin said she presumes that, along with having to oversee such a large space, the Louvre will now have to manage the increase in visitors caused by the prominence of discussion about the robbery. She theorizes that the absence of the jewels will encourage visitors to visit the scene of the crime.

“People are going to want to see,” she said. “That's the same thing that happened with the Mona Lisa. It was not really popular before—now it's famous because it got stolen. It's the best publicity in some ways, but I think people will maybe see that section of the Louvre that they never went to before.”

Guests who choose to venture to the scene of the crime will find that they are not being surveilled as they make their visit. The security camera located at the thieves’ point of entry is not pointed at the window they broke in through, but facing in the opposite direction.

Sofie blames the lack of surveillance for the robbery, arguing that this allowed for the simplicity of the theft. She cited a video she saw of the robbers escaping. “They weren't even trying to be fast,” she said. “They wanted to get caught.”

The Louvre, which was built during the 12th and 13th centuries, is very difficult to maintain, so taking care of the works of art and the building itself is not an easy task. Madame Cousin relates the decreased surveillance to a lack of funding for the arts in general.

“I think it just speaks more about [the lack of] investments in the arts, investments in preserving whatever we think needs to be preserved in a museum,” she said. “I wonder if this could happen again, and what the next step is going to be. Are there going to be major investments, or is it going to be the same thing?”

Sofie said she also wonders if the situation will evoke awareness and increase funding for art, and noted that she has concerns about the significance of the theft in the media attention given to the event.

“I feel like [the media coverage] doesn't really give much importance to what was actually stolen,” she said. “It's more than just a piece of jewelry—it's actually history, and we're taking it as a joke when it really shouldn't be.”

Madame Cousin said she agrees that acknowledging the history and importance of the items can inform our ideas of the momentousness of the event, but to understand the importance of these items and many others, requires an understanding of how they came to be in the museum in the first place.

“It's a lot of money, and [Empress Eugénie's Crown and decorative bow] are historical jewels, so it makes sense [that they were stolen],” she said. “But maybe we can rethink how these jewels came to be. They were stolen from the beginning.”

Verifying the origin of many famous pieces at the Louvre and other famous museums is not a new idea.

Well-known art work having a history of questionable acquisition, is a common challenge that museums have grappled with for a long time. Many hope that unanticipated events like the heist will change that.

The audacious and unexpected nature of this theft has left many surprised and wondering how this will affect the preservation of historical art and artifacts in the future, specifically at the Louvre. Sofie, Madame Cousin, and many others invested in the story have contemplated the effect of the public reaction from the art world and on social media and how the heist will change how we think about important cultural items and their preservation.

“I think once the surveillance dies down, so do the jokes,” Sofie said, “but it's definitely something that's gonna be written in history forever.”