Louvre robbery: If thieves get jewels recut ‘we’ll never see these pieces again intact,’ expert says

Crime gangs around Europe are increasingly robbing valuable jewels and gold from cash-needy museums like the Louvre, but while law enforcement often catches the thieves, they struggle to recover the priceless goods, police and art experts say. Only a small pool of criminals would be capable of such a job as Sunday’s brazen robbery in Paris and may already be known to police, the specialists say. But the objects themselves could be quickly broken down into component parts and sold on. “Right now it’s a race between the police and their investigators,” says Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International. “What they’re going to do to hide them is open up the jewels and take out the diamonds on the sapphires and the emeralds and take them over to a place where they can have them recut in Antwerp or in Tel Aviv and find a jeweller that won’t ask any questions,” said Marinello. “And once they’re been cut into smaller jewels, the deed is done. It’s over. We’ll never see these pieces again intact.”