Italy has recently been spoiled for choice when it comes to making fun of its arrogant neighbor. After having mocked France’s budgetary difficulties and its governmental instability, the media reveled in the burglary of the Louvre. “No respite for the France of Macron and Lecornu” summarizes most Italian newspapers, which emphasize the serious flaws in the security of important places of French heritage. If the perpetrators of the burglary of the jewels of the Apollo gallery are obviously compared to “Arsène Lupine in yellow vests”those charged with protecting national treasures are described as Nickel-plated Feet.
“Thieves disguised as workers who use a freight elevator and flee on scooters, abandoning Empress Eugenie’s crown in the street… I have the impression of a bad hoax and I am waiting for a denial or to wake up from a bad dream”commented Antonio Natali, who directed the Uffizi Gallery in Florence from 2006 to 2015. “French nationalism found its greatest expression in the Louvre, where art is sacred. When I ran the Offices, I lived in terror of theft. All it takes is a little nothing, a moment of distraction, despite the armored windows or even if we remain attentive to the slightest interstice of the museum. (…) At Notre-Dame, there was unconsciousness; what to call what happened at the Louvre? It’s a nice parody of greatness with grinders, but I don’t mean to be cruel. »
The transalpine press draws up a pitiless but not always very fair list of deficiencies: lack of video surveillance cameras, understaffing at the largest museum in the world, where criminals can operate with so much ease. She also likes to recall the recent thefts in French museums: that of five nuggets of pure gold stolen from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris or that of the two dishes and the Chinese vase, worth at least six and a half million euros, missing from the Adrien-Dubouché National Museum in Limoges.
But the burglary of October 19 at the Louvre resurrects the memory of the precedent of 1911, when an Italian worker stole The Mona Lisa to bring it back to the peninsula, where according to him it would have been better preserved. The opportunity for commentators to emphasize that despite the reputation of the Louvre, its security has always shown flaws. “The completely incredible nature of this burglary makes it inconceivable”comments the director of a large Italian museum, who wishes to remain anonymous. “Nothing like this could have been imagined, even if the security gaps are obvious. But, although no major cultural institution is absolutely safe from a burglary, I think that in France this event is a symptom of the social divide and the crisis of the State. In these moments, taboos fall, and symbols of identity and heritage become easy targets. This burglary is highly symbolic and humiliating. »
