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French authorities have detained two of the suspected robbers believed to have stolen precious crown jewels from the Louvre in a museum heist that stunned the world, officials have said.

A swarm of investigators had been mobilised to track down the thieves who robbed the famous museum in broad daylight on October 19, making off with jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million ($177.2m) in just a few minutes.

The two suspects were known to the police for committing thefts, a source close to the case said, adding that they were in their 30s and from Seine-Saint-Denis, a region just outside Paris.

The same source said one of the men had been arrested at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport where he was about to board a plane for Algeria.

The two men were taken into custody on suspicion of organised theft and criminal conspiracy. They could be held up to 96 hours.

After media reports of the detentions, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said authorities had “carried out arrests on Saturday evening”, and confirmed that “one of the men arrested was about to leave the country” from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

The second man was detained not long afterwards in the Paris region, media reports said.

Beccuau deplored the public revelation of the arrests, warning they “can only hinder the efforts of the 100 investigators mobilised” in the hunt for the jewels and the perpetrators.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez also called for confidentiality while congratulating the investigators “who have worked tirelessly”, in a post on X.

In the October 19 heist, the robbers went up an extendable ladder of a stolen movers’ truck and, using cutting equipment, broke into a gallery that houses royal gems.

They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and on to scooters, but managed to steal eight other pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, the Empress Marie-Louise.

‘Concern for the jewellery’

The brazen theft made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.

The Louvre’s director has admitted the robbers had exploited a blind spot in the security surveillance of the museum’s outside walls.

But Beccuau said public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves “in Paris and in surrounding regions”.

Investigators were also able to find DNA samples and fingerprints at the scene from items left behind by the robbers as they fled, including gloves, a high-vis vest, a blowtorch and power tools.

The robbers also dropped a crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, which was damaged and needs to be restored.

The rest of the pieces have not been recovered and risk being broken apart, their precious metal settings melted down.

Nunez expressed his “concern” for the jewellery in an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche on Sunday. He said the heist appeared to have been carried out by an organised crime group but added that “thieves are always eventually caught”.

“The loot is unfortunately often stashed abroad. I hope that’s not the case – I remain confident,” he added.

The Louvre theft is the latest in a string of robberies targeting French museums.

Less than 24 hours after the Louvre break-in, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.

Last month, criminals broke into Paris’ Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than US$1.5 million ($2.6m). A Chinese woman has been detained and charged with involvement in the theft.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on X on Friday she had requested findings from an investigation into the Louvre’s security to “announce concrete measures to secure” the museum.

In the meantime, head of the National Assembly’s cultural affairs committee, Alexandre Portier, proposed an amendment to the budget currently being debated to create “an emergency fund to secure national heritage” of €50m ($100.9m).

- Agence France-Presse