A tongue-in-cheek advert for the crane used by the Louvre robbers has boasted of being ‘quiet as a whisper’ with the gang still on the run.
‘When you need to move fast’ is the new slogan for the company Böcker, looking to cash in on the getaway vehicle’s success in allowing the robbers to escape with €88m (£76m) worth of Napoleonic jewellery on Sunday.
The crane can carry ‘up to 400kg of treasures at 42m per minute – as quiet as a whisper’, it says alongside a picture of the extended arm reaching to the first floor of the world’s most popular gallery.
Alexander Boecker, CEO of Crane Manufacturer Boecker, went ahead with the advert the next day in a bid to prove that Germans have a sense of humour ‘after all’.
‘We heard about the robbery at the Louvre on Sunday and were able to determine relatively quickly that it was our inclined lift that the perpetrators had used’, Boecker said.
‘Once it became clear that no one had been harmed, we started getting more and more texts from employees asking, ‘Have you seen this? What do you think?’ And then my wife and I started brainstorming a bit on Saturday.
‘And then my wife had the idea for when things need to be done quickly. So we acquired the image on Monday morning, or rather the licence for it, and said we’d post it on Instagram, Facebook and later LinkedIn, hoping that everyone would get the joke and not take the whole thing too seriously.’
But it’s gone down like a cup of cold sick in France after it emerged the Louvre’s cameras failed to detect burglars in time to prevent their ‘national humiliation’.
It came as footage from outside the Louvre showed the jewellery thieves making their escape in the least subtle way imaginable.
The pair, one in a hi-vis jacket and the other in a motorbike helmet, are seen gently lowering themselves from a balcony, looking more like maintenance workers than criminal masterminds from a heist film.
A voice, possibly that of a museum security guard, is heard saying: ‘The individuals are on scooters, they are going to leave.’
Mere seconds later, the two men can be seen heading away on two scooters.
The voice then says: ‘Blast! Try the police. They’ve gone!’ along with several swear words.
This video has gathered much attention on social media, with many amused at how simple the getaway appears.
One Facebook user said: ‘They have earned all the loot they have gained.’
Another commented: ‘They watched too many heist movies and realised how easy it was to.’
Someone drew a comparison between a mass jewellery heist to not paying for a supermarket carrier bag: ‘Mad how crown jewels get stolen no problem.. yet you get stopped by security to make sure you’ve paid 10p for ya bag to carry your stolen loot out the shop.’
The vehicle lift used was carjacked by the thieves nine days before the ‘heist of the decade’.
A rental service employee was preparing to hand over a Mitsubishi Canter Fuso truck fitted with a 90-foot ladder to a driver when two men arrived on a motorbike and confronted them.
The suspects reportedly threatened the driver before one of them fled the scene in the truck.
(Picture: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)
The rental firm boss, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Telegraph: ‘We have nothing to do with this. It’s bothersome.’
He also said he did not know where the vehicle had gone until he saw it on the news, which is when he informed the police.
The thieves apparently did not intend for the lift truck to be left intact, as suggested by the petrol container left behind. It was the security guards who deterred them from doing so.
Yesterday evening, the director of the Louvre museum, Laurence des Cars, spoke publicly for the first time after the audacious heist.
The hearing lasted two hours, which consisted of several revelations.
Seven key takeaways from Louvre hearing
- The thieves were not spotted early enough by the museum to stop the robbery
- CCTV around the perimeter of the Louvre was weak and ‘aging’ due to a ‘chronic underinvestment in equipment and infrastructure’
- Des Cars called herself a whistleblower because she warned how ‘obsolete’ the equipment was when she took over in 2021
- The only camera monitoring the targeted Gallery of Apollo was pointing away from the balcony that the thieves climbed over
- She hopes work to improve security will begin at the start of 2026
- She offered to resign from her role after the heist but it was rejected
- One of the eight items stolen – a diadem that once belonged to Empress Eugenie – was recovered, but damaged. An initial report suggests restoration is possible.
The rest of the stolen jewels are yet to be found, with growing concerns that they are long gone.
The French government has confirmed the objects were not covered by private insurance, meaning they will not be reimbursed for any losses.
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