The Director of the Louvre museum in Paris has admitted that there was inadequate security camera coverage of the outside walls, responding to questions about the theft of priceless royal jewels last weekend.
"There are some perimeter cameras, but they are ageing," Laurence des Cars told senators after Sunday's daylight robbery.
Coverage "is highly insufficient ... It clearly does not cover all the facades of the Louvre, and unfortunately, on the side of the Apollo Gallery, the only camera installed is directed westward and therefore did not cover the balcony involved in the break-in," she said.
Ms Des Cars, who appeared before the Senate's culture committee, added that she had requested a report on existing security measures as soon as she took over as head of the museum in 2021.
There was a plan, she said, to improve protection of the buildings, whose extensive collections range from Ancient Egyptian relics to the Mona Lisa.
It included "video surveillance covering all facades" and "the installation of fixed thermal cameras", Ms Des Cars said.
Ms Des Cars said that she had tendered her resignation after the raid, but the culture ministry had refused it.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the "speeding up" of security measures at the Louvre, after it reopened its doors to visitors, having been closed since the heist took place.
However, the Apollo Gallery, where the theft occurred, is still shut.
Yesterday, the museum hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the stolen jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and "represented a considerable improvement in terms of security".
Scores of investigators are looking for the culprits, working on the theory that members of an organised crime group climbed a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.
They made off with eight pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds.
A prosecutor said the financial loss from the robbery is estimated at €88 million.
The investigation "is progressing", Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media, saying that "more than 100 investigators" had been mobilised.
"I have full confidence, that's for sure, that we will find the perpetrators," he said.
The Louvre - the world's most-visited museum - welcomed nine million people to its extensive hallways and galleries last year.
