At least two traces of DNA have been found in the investigation into the shocking heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris, authorities confirmed Thursday.
The DNA samples were taken from a glove and a helmet left behind by the robbers, investigators told ABC News. They have not yet been matched to any suspects.
Also on Thursday, video emerged of two of the four thieves making their escape in a basket lift, which descended from the museum’s second floor back to the streets of Paris.
The video shows one man in a high-visibility vest and the other man in all-black with a motorcycle helmet. All four thieves escaped on motorbikes, cops said.
As the lift descends, the man wearing the construction vest appears to be looking around for something on the ground. However, he does not seem to locate it before both men hop out of the basket and run away.
In addition to the glove and the helmet with DNA, the thieves also left behind an item they tried to steal, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie.
However, the crooks still made off with eight items valued at $102 million total, including Empress Eugenie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch, along with a necklace that belonged to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife.
The entire operation took less than 8 minutes, and the robbers were only inside the museum for 4 minutes, investigators said. Another video, released earlier in the week, appeared to show another man in a high-visibility vest slicing through a display case with a battery-powered saw.
However, the grainy cellphone clips are the only video of the heist because surveillance cameras were pointed in the wrong direction, Louvre director Laurence des Cars confirmed Wednesday.
