Jessica Mendoza (2:32)

But the question is why? Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, November 17th. Coming up on the show, museum heists are on the rise in France.

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Jessica Mendoza (4:08)

So Noemi, you said there have been seven heists in France in the past couple of months. Can you walk me through some of them?

Noemi Becerbe (4:15)

In September, thieves stole from a museum in Limoges, a city in central France. That same month, the Museum of Natural History in central Paris was hit too. Weeks later, the Musee du Desert, which is like a museum in a tiny village in the south of France, was robbed. And that same week, the Jacques Chirac Museum was hit not once but twice on the same week by what prosecutors think are two separate groups of thieves.

Jessica Mendoza (4:42)

Oh my goodness. So I just want to understand, what is it that thieves want from these museums?

Noemi Becerbe (4:49)

Well, what they're looking for is basically stuff that they can sell and you can't art, which is very recognizable. And so that basically rules out paintings and sculptures and so on. But you can melt stuff. You can steal gold, melt it and resell it. You can steal a beautiful diamond necklace, which is very recognizable, but break it into pieces and sell it off quite easily. So that's really what they're looking for. They're looking for melt value.

Jessica Mendoza (5:23)

Melt value. That's the money that thieves can get by melting, cutting or altering the stolen items before selling them. I'm curious. These metals and jewels have always been valuable, and presumably these collections have sort of been sitting at these museums for years. Why are these heists happening now?

Noemi Becerbe (5:44)

Well, I think that one factor is that the price of gold has increased quite significantly, buoyed by anxiety over geopolitics, inflation and the Federal Reserve independence.

Jessica Mendoza (5:56)

Gold and silver prices have both reached all time highs this year, and that's after a major surge over the last decade. But Noemi says another reason heists have taken off is that thieves saw it could be done, and relatively easily. It started in 2017 with a heist at the Bode Museum in Berlin.

Noemi Becerbe (6:15)

This 20 year old member of a Lebanese German crime family called Wisam Remo, he stole a coin known as the Big Maple Leaf, which was valued at more than 3 million euros.

Jessica Mendoza (6:27)

3 million euros? Wow.

Noemi Becerbe (6:28)

Yes, nearly $4 million. They actually hauled the coin on a rollerboard and dropped it out the window. And then they carried it across a bridge in a wheelbarrow.

Jessica Mendoza (6:39)

Okay, hold on. How big is this coin? I was like picturing a coin. Why do you need a wheelbarrow for?

Noemi Becerbe (6:46)

It's massive. It's like. I think that. Yeah, it's 220 pound coin. Oh my. And also made of like, I think it's 99.9, 999% gold, which makes it like a rarity. So it was a pretty spectacular heist.

Jessica Mendoza (7:01)

That's so brazen. And just as a side note, why was it called the Big Maple Leaf?

Noemi Becerbe (7:07)

Because it was forged by the Royal Canadian Mint and so it became known as the Big Maple Leaf.

Jessica Mendoza (7:18)

The heist seemed straight out of the movie Ocean's Eleven. The thieves, led by Wisam Remo, identified a weak spot in the museum, a second floor window that was disconnected from the alarm system. The thieves also had an inside man. According to court documents, an acquaintance of the Remo family had taken a job as a museum guard. And one evening before clocking out, the guard left the window open for Remo's team. And then what did they do? They just cut up this gold coin?

Noemi Becerbe (7:46)

Yeah. So they. Well, they cut the coin in smaller pieces to sell it off.

Jessica Mendoza (7:53)

Okay.

Noemi Becerbe (7:53)

And actually police found like their clothes and car and home sprinkled with this gold dust of extraordinary purity. It was an incredible heist.

Jessica Mendoza (8:07)

Police eventually tracked down Remo and his accomplices. But while awaiting trial, Remo went and pulled off a second, even bigger heist at a different museum. In that case, he made off with 21 pieces of jewelry encrusted with more than 4,300 diamonds, a haul valued at more than 116 million euros. Remo and other family members were convicted of both heists. The group returned some of the stolen jewels as part of a plea bargain. Remo was sentenced to 10 years and nine months in prison for both robberies.

Noemi Becerbe (8:41)

You've had like these spectacular heists which have allowed this realization, which is that, well, actually these guys can pull it off. Well, maybe we can too. That's according to my sources. So it's also like, people get inspired.

Jessica Mendoza (8:57)

By these sets and it's like a copycat situation.

Noemi Becerbe (9:00)

Exactly. It creates copycats. And we've seen that very clearly in France. Like this acceleration.

Jessica Mendoza (9:07)

And why museums versus jewelry stores or other private collections.

Noemi Becerbe (9:11)

Museums have actually pieces which are much more valuable than any jewelry store. And what they figured out is that it's actually to rob a museum than to rob a jewelry store, which, unlike museums, has very heavy security.

Jessica Mendoza (9:29)

Many of Europe's museums are in historic palaces and mansions, places that were built centuries ago to house noble families, not to counter modern security threats. And museums trying to upgrade the security of historic buildings have to go through tons of red tape.

Noemi Becerbe (9:44)

There are very specific rules about what you can do and not do.

Jessica Mendoza (9:49)

Like their facades and stuff like that.

Noemi Becerbe (9:51)

Exactly. You need permits to be able to implement these changes.

Jessica Mendoza (9:56)

In the wake of all these robberies, and especially since the Louvre was hit, museum heists have become a major headache for the French government. What they're doing about it is next.

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Noemi Becerbe (10:35)

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Jessica Mendoza (11:20)

After the Louvre heist, it became clear to French officials that the problem of museum thefts wasn't going away.

Noemi Becerbe (11:26)

I think that this robbery was a real eye opener for everyone and for French authorities. France's most famous museum was robbed in broad daylight by four thieves who entered the museum and made off with $102 million in jewels from the Galerie d'. Apollon.

Jessica Mendoza (11:47)

Preliminary charges have been brought against four people in connection with the Louvre heist. The jewels have not been recovered. The Louvre is now reviewing its security measures and has plans to invest massively in upgrades.

Noemi Becerbe (11:59)

A recent government report has argued that the Louvre has invested a lot of money in acquiring new art and that sometimes that has been at the detriment of the very basic security of these work of art. For the Louvre, it will be very manageable because the Louvre is is a very rich museum. They have the resources to do that. I think that the challenge will really be for other smaller museums which do not have this kind of revenue.

Jessica Mendoza (12:31)

And there are a lot of these smaller museums all throughout France. The country is home to about 1,200 museums, many of which aren't flooded by millions of visitors a year like the Louvre. Instead, they rely on a combination of ticket sales and funding from local government, private donors, and community fundraisers. That means investing in security won't be as simple. So what is the government's plan to address this?

Noemi Becerbe (12:56)

Well, they're still trying to examine all of the art which is out there and the collections which are out there in France and try to build a proper list of national treasures. And from there, they will decide what to do. And we know that's going to be difficult because, well, France's finances are not in great shape right now. France has a massive deficit, and it's struggling to even agree on a budget before the end of the year.

Jessica Mendoza (13:27)

Sounds familiar.

Noemi Becerbe (13:29)

So they are in a difficult spot right now.

Jessica Mendoza (13:33)

And so given that, how does the government decide which museums, which treasures are the priority?

Noemi Becerbe (13:39)

I think that you have to examine, well, their sheer value, but also what they mean to our history. And it's going to be very difficult decision to make for French people, like protecting these museums. It's also about protecting their heritage and passing it on to future generations. And that's very important to French people. And when you have as many museums as you do in France, I think that it's hard to make choices. A lot of people never really thought about these things before these robberies happened and realized how deeply it affected them.

Jessica Mendoza (14:21)

Meanwhile, back in the small town of Langue, residents are dealing with what they see as a huge loss.

Noemi Becerbe (14:27)

These coins had a very special value in people's mind because the history of this treasure is kind of interesting. This museum is relatively recent. It was opened roughly 10 years ago. And actually, when they did the work to renovate this beautiful building and to create the museum inside that building, one of the construction workers found that treasure while doing the renovation work. And the rule is in France that basically, if you find a treasure, half of it is yours.

Jessica Mendoza (15:04)

So half of it keepers?

Noemi Becerbe (15:06)

Yes, half of it. Half of it still. And so this worker got half of the treasure, and the other half went to the city. And that's how it ended up in that museum. But because of this story, people felt like this was sort of the town's treasure, and it had, like, beyond its sheer value, it had, like, a very strong sentimental value to people in Langres.

Jessica Mendoza (15:38)

Given all the problems happening nationally, does that put Long in kind of a tough spot? What are their options?

Noemi Becerbe (15:46)

Well, when I actually spoke to the chief of staff of the mayor, he was saying that they had been discussing now for a while several security improvements, including a metal shutter in front of the main entrance. And while those plans had been delayed essentially for financial reasons. So I can guess that now those changes will be implemented. Maybe a bit too late, but yeah.

Jessica Mendoza (16:12)

Were those thieves ever caught from Long?

Noemi Becerbe (16:15)

No, they have not been. Not been caught yet.

Jessica Mendoza (16:18)

Still on the loose. They're still out there.

Noemi Becerbe (16:19)

They're still out there.

Jessica Mendoza (16:33)

That's all for today. Monday, November 17 Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Stacey Miketree and Bertrand Benoit. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.