Khaberni - Concurrent with the Louvre Museum theft controversy, French authorities arrested a Chinese woman who was charged in relation to the theft of gold from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, in one of several major thefts targeting French cultural institutions recently, as reported by a prosecutor on Tuesday.
According to "AFP," the theft, which the museum director at the time described as "executed by a very skilled team", occurred on the sixteenth of September, just over a month before the robbery during which jewelry was stolen from the Louvre, last Sunday.
The 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on the 30th of September, in relation to a gold theft worth over one million dollars from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, according to the Paris public prosecutor, Laure Bico.
The suspect was handed over to the French authorities on October 13, charged with theft and conspiracy to commit crime, and was placed in pre-trial detention on the same day.
The investigation revealed that she left France on the day of the theft, and was preparing to return to China.
The public prosecutor said she was trying to dispose of about a kilogram of melted gold pieces upon her arrest, without providing further details.
The museum curator discovered the stolen gold pieces on display after a cleaner reported debris at the site.
The stolen items include gold pieces from Bolivia donated in the eighteenth century and from the Ural region in Russia, gifted by Tsar Nicholas I in 1833, along with gold pieces from California dating back to the "Gold Rush" era.
Bico also noted that among the stolen items was a five-kilogram piece from Australia discovered in 1990.
She added that nearly six kilograms of natural gold were stolen, estimating the damages at approximately 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million), pointing out that the historical and scientific value of the pieces is "priceless."
Investigators concluded that two of the museum’s doors were cut while a display cabinet was breached using a welding torch. The tools used in the operation were found nearby.
Security camera footage showed a person entering the museum alone shortly after one o'clock in the morning and leaving around four o'clock in the morning, according to Bico, who indicated that the investigation is still ongoing.
The police are still conducting searches for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre, in an operation that took place during daylight on Sunday.
The robbery incident revived the debate about the lack of security in French museums.
