French authorities cracked this case through solid police work and forensic science. The criminals left 150 DNA samples at the scene and booked flights under their real names — amateur hour mistakes that made arrests inevitable. These weren't criminal masterminds but hired muscle from Seine-Saint-Denis working for international buyers.

This brazen heist exposed France's institutional decay and chronic government neglect of national treasures. The Louvre's security was laughably inadequate — cameras pointed the wrong way and broken windows covered with wood like a home repair job. This embarrassing failure symbolizes Macron's crumbling presidency.