US Wall Street Journal October 20 article, titled: Louvre thieves try to sell the dark underworld of stolen jewelry Recently, several thieves openly broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and robbed nine pieces of French royal jewelry. Except for a crown belonging to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, which has been found by the police, the whereabouts of the rest are still unknown, and professionals are tracing it to prevent it from flowing into the black market. People are worried that these artifacts may be dismantled and sold.

¡°Now everyone in the industry is talking about it,¡± said Robert Whitman, former chief agent of the FBI¡¯s art crime group. What he calls ¡°everyone,¡± includes jewelry thieves and private investigative companies that rely on pursuing thieves. According to the FBI, there is a global secret network of stolen art in the world, where billions of dollars of illegal art is traded every year. From the diamond cutting stores in Dubai and Delhi to the jewelry dealers in New York and Antwerp, the network is worldwide.

The black market "whitewashing" path of stolen jewelry

Some private investigators believe that without bonuses or the opportunity to get a quick ransom, thieves may try to smuggle stolen gems from the Louvre to black market jewelers. These jewelers are willing to recut and reshape larger jewelry into smaller and untraceable pieces that can be resold elsewhere.

Unlike Picasso paintings or Rolex watches, stolen gems can be removed from jewelry and their gold bases can also be melted because such jewelry is disassembled into precious metals and gems that still have value.

The Louvre robbery on the 19th is a continuation of the frequent gold thefts in Europe in the past few years. Jewelers believe the spate of thefts is related to soaring gold prices in commodity markets. Comunde, managing director of an online jeweler, said that the resale price of gold now exceeds $4000 per ounce, up 60% last year alone. For thieves, the temptation to steal any gold or shiny objects from museums is becoming increasingly great.

It is unclear whether the robbery was the work of an organized criminal group. According to the National Retail Federation, nearly 40% of all jewelry thefts in the United States are committed by organized crime groups. Some of these gangs are more cunning and sophisticated than others, and they are well equipped and good at disguising. In the past few decades, the most notorious jewelry theft gang in the Balkans, the * Leopard, has committed dozens of jewelry thefts across Europe and Asia, involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why 19th century jewelry was targeted

Whitman said that compared with the secret operation of "* Leopard", the Louvre robbery exposed many "loopholes". On the morning of 19th, four thieves parked a truck equipped with an elevator outside the Louvre, and used a ladder to climb up the window and break into one of the upper exhibition halls. It took only 7 minutes to take away the jewelry and escape by motorcycle. But the thieves left behind lifts, angle grinders used to cut windows and showcases, and yellow construction vests for camouflage. When they fled, they left Empress Eugenie's crown, which was set with nearly 1,400 diamonds and 56 emeralds. When the crown was found outside the pavilion, it was already damaged. In response, Whitman said, "They are bold, but they appear amateur." Some private detectives think it is unbelievable that the crown was abandoned by thieves, because the crown has such historical and market value, so they may not be professional thieves.

In addition to being easy to hide and transfer, the appeal of stolen jewelry lies in its age. Some industry insiders explained that modern or laboratory-cultivated gemstones usually carry identification marks, while 19th century jewelry is not engraved with miniature serial numbers. Some of the stolen jewelry from the Louvre contained many smaller diamonds, which may also be why they were targeted because small diamonds could be resold without having to be cut. On the contrary, large diamonds may have small flaws inside them that make them easy to identify.

¡°Cultural terrorism¡±

Ironically, these thieves may not profit much from the robbery. Industry insiders say that thieves usually only get about 10% of the jewelry market price, because they have to separate with the knowledgeable in exchange for secrecy. However, compared to the stolen paintings, jewelry is more likely to appear in the black market, because tracking old jewelry is more difficult.

Experts have called on countries to regard the theft of cultural heritage as "cultural terrorism" and increase penalties for it, and museums need to take more measures to protect their exhibits and collections and improve the way they screen visitors. Some experts suggest that museums can follow the example of airports and commercial office buildings and require visitors to show photo ID. However, Whitman laughed and said that if the Louvre really requires tourists to check their ID cards and enter the museum,"there will probably be a queue at the entrance all day." (Written by Kelly Crowe, translated by Lin Yu)