Police arrested suspects who were attempting to leave the country on suspicion of stealing valuable jewelry from the Louvre, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced.
Thieves robbed the Louvre’s Apollo Museum in broad daylight last week and made off with tens of millions worth of jewelry within minutes.
Louvre director Laurence de Cases called the large number of investigators involved in tracking down the robbery suspect a “terrible failure”.
French media first reported the news of the arrests, with CNN affiliate BFMTV reporting that two suspects in their 30s, known to police, were taken into custody on Saturday night local time.
At least two other people suspected of being involved in the robbery remain at large, BFMTV said.
“One of the arrested men was preparing to leave the country from Roissy airport, also known as Charles de Gaulle airport, a facility near Paris,” Paris prosecutor Laure Becuaux said.
Prosecutors would not confirm the number of arrests or say whether any jewelry had been recovered.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez congratulated the investigators on the arrest, saying they “worked tirelessly to do exactly what I asked them to do and have always had my full confidence.”
Last weekend, thieves attacked the Apollo Museum, located on the upper floors of the Louvre, which houses the jewels of the French royal family. They used a ladder attached to a truck to access the gallery, one of the museum’s most ornate rooms, through a window.
In a seven-minute robbery, they broke into two heavily guarded display cases and stole nine items, France’s Culture Ministry said. Among the items taken was a diamond and sapphire jewelry set, including a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense.
Becuaux previously told French radio station RTL that the value of the jewelry taken from the museum was estimated at 88 million euros ($102 million). She said about 100 investigators are participating in the manhunt to track down the perpetrators of the robbery.
A week after the robbery, the investigation into the case is accelerating, BFMTV reported on Sunday.
Following the daytime robbery, France’s Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin admitted that the robbery had exposed security lapses at France’s most famous museum.
“There are questions, for example, about the fact that the windows were not closed and the fact that the basket lift was on a public road,” he told France Inter radio. “What is certain is that we failed.”
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
