"France's Crown Jewels" Stolen in Daring Daylight Heist from Louvre; French Right Blames "Le Wokisme" and the Drive to Hire Women No Matter What Their Qualifications

I first heard it took seven minutes. Now they're claiming four -- but I think they're claiming it took less time to sell the idea that "there was nothing that anyone could have done to stop this, even if a qualified person was in charge of security."

You know why they're pushing that message.

"France's Crown Jewels" -- they're not really that, they're just priceless jewels with a historic legacy -- are worth an estimated $100 million.

If sold as they are, physically intact, and with their provenance intact. Which they can't be, of course.

The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory and comes as staff complained that crowding and thin staffing are straining security.

Repeat after me: "There was nothing that anyone could have done, even if the director of security was chosen based on qualifications rather than what she's got between her legs."

The theft unfolded just 250 meters (270 yards) from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a professional "four-minute operation."

One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. It was reportedly recovered broken.

Images from the scene showed confused tourists being steered out of the glass pyramid and adjoining courtyards as officers closed nearby streets along the Seine.
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A lift -- which officials say the thieves brought and which was later removed -- stood against the Seine-facing façade, their entry route and, observers said, a revealing weakness: that such machinery could be brought to a palace-museum unchecked.

There was nothing that anyone could have done, even if someone qualified were the head of security.

Around 9:30 a.m., several intruders forced a window, cut panes with a disc cutter and went straight for the glass display cases, officials said.

There was nothing that anyone could have done, even if a qualified director of security had trained and drilled the guards to come running at the sound of breaking glass.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the crew entered from outside using a basket lift via the riverfront facade to reach the hall with the 23-item royal collection.

Their target was the gilded Apollon Gallery, where the Crown Diamonds are displayed, including the Regent, the Sancy and the Hortensia.

The thieves smashed two display cases and fled on motorbikes, Nunez said. No one was hurt. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the theft was already done.

Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie's diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch -- a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.

"It's a major robbery," Nunez said...

No shit? Pas de merde?

... noting that security measures at the Louvre had been strengthened in recent years and would be reinforced further as part of the museum's upcoming overhaul plan. Officials said security upgrades include new-generation cameras, perimeter detection, and a new security control room.

Whatever.

Police are searching for the three thieves. One of them may be named Pierre Despereaux and another uses various aliases including Lavender Goombs, Sillypants Jackson, Ghee Buttersnaps, Ovaltine Jenkins, Longbranch Pennywhistle, and Scooney "U-Turn" Singleton.

People are talking about the thieves chopping up the jewels into smaller, more salable gems but that would destroy about 90% of the value of the jewels. What I imagine, based on years of study and watching the first four seasons of Leverage, is that the thieves intend to ransom the jewels back to the Louvre.

The gay furry communist webzine Daily Beast is shrieking that MAGA is blaming the theft on woke DEI hiring of females based on their gender and not their abilities. Unfortunately for America's leading furry community webzine, the facts seem to indicate that's exactly what happened.

French and American conservatives have made Sunday's daylight Louvre heist the site of a battle in the culture wars upon learning the museum's security head is a woman.

After thieves executed a surprisingly simple heist to rob the museum of jewels that belonged to Napoleon's family, France's far right began blaming "le wokisme," believing Dominique Buffin, the first woman hired as security chief at the Louvre, was chosen for her gender and not her merits.

Speaking on French radio station Europe 1, Erik Tegnér, founder of far-right French news outlet Frontiéres, said, "The Louvre's security director would have been chosen not based on her abilities, but because she is a woman. It is this destruction by wokeism that we find notably in the United States."

On X, EU parliament member Marion Maréchal, niece of far-right French leader Marine Le Pen, said Buffin's hire was "part of a feminization policy" in France and demanded her resignation.

The basis for these claims appears to stem from a 2024 article in Le Monde, which said "feminization of recruitment" is important to Laurence Des Cars, the museum's first female director. Conservatives have jumped on this sentence to suggest Buffin is unqualified for the job and only got it because she is female.

Buffin, 46, began her career as a police officer in 2001. In 2013, she joined the Ministry of Culture, where she worked as an adviser on the security of French museums. In 2017, she was promoted to senior defense deputy and security official at the Ministry of Culture, and in 2024 was named the Louvre's security director.

...

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Louvre, which does not have a formal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy, for comment.

Oh, they don't have a formal policy of DEI. They just talk about le wokisme and the need for the "feminization of recruitment."

Was it really this woman's fault? Is she really unqualified?

I don't know. I don't work there.

But I do know this: the left insists on hiring based on factors having nothing to do with qualifications, experience, and ability, and then when things go south -- and they go south a lot -- they claim that the people they previously admitted were hired for anti-merit reasons were the the very best people for the job.

They keep claiming, absurdly, that although they confess they have reduced the required qualifications down to almost nothing as long as you are female or minority or "queer," this system just happens to keep coincidentally resulting in the most qualified people being hired. Female, minority, and "queer" people are hired for anti-merit reasons, but they insist that it turns out these anti-merit hiring criteria just so happen to result in the most meritorious candidates being hired.

In other words: We don't need the system of preferences and quotas at all because, according to the left, the most qualified people are being hired despite the anti-merit hiring practices. Thus, without these preferences and quotas, the allegedly "best" people for the job would have been hired anyway.

They're the best, right?

I'm sorry, I'm going to need more than "there was nothing anyone could have done, trust us, bro."

The thieves just literally pushed a very tall ladder/basket lift against the building at 9:30 in the morning, used power tools to cut through the exterior window, walked in and started smashing-and-grabbing. They were in and out in seven minutes.

But... the Louvre has hundreds of security guards. No one saw the ladder/"basket lift"? No one came running at the sound of smashing glass?

This account claims the jewels were protected by armored glass and would drop into below-the-floor safes if the glass were cut -- until 2019, when this actual security was replaced by... normal glass and no drop-thorugh-the-floor safes.

The head of the Louvre said her mission was to reduce the "elitism" of the Louvre and "democratize" art. Did she decide that bulky armored displays were too "elite" and separate the people from their jewels

Failed French president Manny Macron announced an exciting new possibility for Louvre security.

Happy Humpday, y'all!

Le Wokisme" and the Drive to Hire Women No Matter What Their Qualifications&bodytext= I first heard it took seven minutes. Now they're claiming four -- but I think they're claiming it took less time to sell the idea that "there was nothing that anyone could have done to stop this, even if...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 12:10 PM

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