Paris prosecutor says 2 suspects in the Louvre jewel heist acknowledge their involvement

PARIS (AP) — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Wednesday were handed preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The prosecutor said they admitted their involvement.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told a news conference that the two are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum Oct. 19, and that at least two other accomplices are at large. The jewels remain missing.

The two were given preliminary charges and ordered held in custody pending further investigation, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

They have “partially” admitted their participation in the robbery, Beccuau said. She declined to provide details about the suspects' statements to investigators because she said accomplices may listen.

It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.

The two men arrested on Saturday night “are suspected of being the ones who broke into the Apollo Gallery to steal the jewels,” Beccuau said.

One is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers, and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she said.

The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.

Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals involved, Beccuau said.

The four suspected robbers arrived onboard a truck equipped with a freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum's window. The four of them left onboard two motor scooters along the Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles parked, she detailed.

Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices within the museum's staff.

The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.

“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “There's still time to give them back.”

Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses — turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.

Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.

“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.

A long-promised revamp — a $93 million project requiring roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029–2030,” he said.

Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.

The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.

Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.

Faure urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.

Former bank robber David Desclos has told the AP the theft was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious in the layout of the gallery.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging “security gaps did exist.”

The museum was already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike — including security agents — over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.

Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.

Experts fear the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past.

People queue to enter Le Louvre museum Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau speaks during a news conference at the Paris courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, on the judicial investigation into the jewels robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau attend a news conference at the Paris courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, on the judicial investigation into the jewels robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Head of the brigand of banditry repression Pascal Carreau, left, and Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau speaks attend a news conference at the Paris courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, on the judicial investigation into the jewels robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Three cats dressed up in typical French outfits are positioned in the courtyard of Le Louvre museum Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

People queue to enter Le Louvre museum Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A surveillance camera is seen on a facade of the Louvre museum, three days after historic jewels were stolen in a daring daylight heist, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Riot police officers patrol as people queue to enter Le Louvre museum Monday, Oct. 27, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising following an encouraging report on inflation that could help the Federal Reserve keep cutting interest rates next year. A strong profit report from Micron Technology also helped AI stocks halt their sharp slides Thursday, at least for now. The S&P 500 rose 1.1%, coming off its fourth straight loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 406 points, and the Nasdaq composite added 1.5%. Some relief came from a report showing that inflation was less bad last month than economists expected. Micron, the seller of memory and storage for computers, soared after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street pointed toward gains before the opening bell Thursday, a day after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.2%. Nasdaq futures shot 0.8% higher.

Some of the companies hit hardest on Wednesday were poised to regain some of those losses Thursday. Broadcom, Oracle and CoreWeave were all up a little more than 1% early Wednesday, possibly boosted by a strong earnings report from the chipmaker Micron.

Micron jumped 12.8% early Thursday after it easily beat Wall Street's first-quarter profit and revenue targets. The Idaho company said that demand for AI accelerated last quarter, pushing its profit and revenue to record highs.

The artificial-intelligence sector is being pressured by questions over whether Big Tech companies’ share prices have shot too high. Micron's record quarter may temporarily ease some of the anxiety over AI and whether all the money being poured into it will turn into productivity and profit.

Outside the tech sector, Lululemon jumped 7.4% on reports that activist investor Elliott Management has taken a more than $1 billion stake in the company and is pushing for a new CEO.

Traders were waiting for an update later in the day on U.S. inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japan’s central bank on interest rates. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to tamp down price pressures, despite a contraction in the July-September quarter.

The Bank of England on Thursday cut its key interest rate for the first time in four months amid signs that the stubbornly high inflation that has plagued British consumers and businesses is beginning to ease. Policymakers at Britain’s central bank voted to reduce the base rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%.

At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,007.33, while the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.4% to 8,114.30. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 9,800.00.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 49,001.50, with technology shares leading the decline.

Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank sank 4%. Computer chipmaker Tokyo Electron lost 3.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest dropped 3.3%.

Honda Motor Corp. fell 2.2% after reports said it was suspending production at some plants in Japan and China due to shortages of computer chips.

South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.5% to 3,994.51, also pulled lower by selling of shares in electronics companies and automakers. LG Electronics declined 3.1%, while Samsung Electronics lost 0.3%.

Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng bounced back from early losses to gain 0.1%, closing at 25,498.13. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.2% higher, to 3,876.37.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,588.20.

In energy markets early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 11 cents at $55.92 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 7 cents to $59.75 per barrel. It had climbed 1.3% on Wednesday.

Oil prices have been falling for most of this year on expectations that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the world’s demand.

Dealers work near the screens showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Jim Boyle, CEO of Medline Industries, poses for a picture outside the Nasdaq MarketSite, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Dealers work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)