Jewels stolen from the Louvre museum in a brazen heist have not yet been found, the Paris prosecutor said on Wednesday, adding that two suspects arrested on the weekend had partially recognized their involvement in the robbery.
Four hooded thieves made off with the jewels after breaking into the Louvre on the morning of October 19, exposing security lapses at the world's most-visited museum.
The two detained men were arrested on Saturday after being identified through DNA traces left at the crime scene.
One of them, a 34-year-old unemployed Algerian national living in France since 2010, was detained by police as he tried to board a flight to Algeria. The other man, 39, was already under judicial supervision in an aggravated theft case, Beccuau said.
Both men live in Aubervilliers, a low-income neighborhood in the deprived suburbs of northern Paris.
There was no evidence at this point to suggest the robbery was an inside job, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told a news conference.
Beccuau said investigators would be asking magistrates to place the two men under formal investigation on suspicion of multiple organized theft offenses. Being placed under formal investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but shows judicial authorities consider there is enough evidence to pursue a preliminary probe.
She added, “We do not rule out the possibility of a larger group, including a person who commissioned the theft and may have been the intended recipient of the stolen jewels.”
"I want to remain hopeful that (the jewels) will be found and they can be brought back to the Louvre, and more broadly to the nation," Beccuau said.
The thieves stole eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre's collection on October 19, exposing security lapses as they broke into the world's most-visited museum using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours. They escaped on motorbikes.
'A national humiliation'
The museum's cameras failed to detect the intruders in time to prevent the robbery, which took between six to seven minutes and was carried out by four people who were unarmed, but who threatened the guards with angle grinders.
Security shortcomings at the Louvre forced the museum to transfer some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France under secret police escort, according to French radio RTL.
News of the robbery reverberated around the world, prompting soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a national humiliation.