Last month’s spectacular Louvre heist, in which robbers made off with some of France’s crown jewels, was a “deafening wake-up call” for museum security, the head of France’s highest audit institution said Thursday.

Upgrades to security at the world-renowned museum have been moving at a “woefully inadequate pace”, Pierre Moscovici told a press conference to present the audit court’s report on the Paris museum.

Instead, the museum has prioritized “high-profile and attractive operations” at the expense of security, the Court of Auditors said in its sharply critical report.

A four-member gang raided the Louvre, the world’s most-visited art museum, in broad daylight on October 19, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million before fleeing on scooters.

The

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