The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said. "We failed these jewels," she said, adding that no-one was protected from "brutal criminals - not even the Louvre".

Thieves used a stolen truck-mounted moving lift to scale the Louvre and steal royal jewels worth over $100 million in a lightning-fast Paris heist.