LOUVRE PUTS BARS ON WINDOW AFTER GALLERY THEFT. (PHOTO).

 Louvre puts bars on window after gallery theft

 The Louvre Museum on Tuesday installed metal bars over the windows of its Apollo Gallery following a daylight robbery in which thieves made off with crown jewels.

“This is one of the emergency measures decided after the theft,” museum deputy administrator Francis Steinbock said. Workers used a crane to position a large grille over the gallery’s tall French doors on the balcony early in the morning.

“We had committed to doing it before the end of the year,” Steinbock added, noting that plans to secure additional windows are still being discussed. Louvre director Laurence des Cars had told lawmakers that a grille would be reinstalled before Christmas, after one had been removed during restoration work in 2003–2004.

The bars are the latest in a series of security measures following the October heist, in which thieves stole jewelry valued at roughly $102 million. Police have been deployed at the museum, and upgrades to video surveillance are underway. Anti-intrusion measures around the museum were also recently completed.

During the Oct. 19 robbery, the thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder beneath the Apollo Gallery, climbed up, broke a window, and used angle grinders to cut into display cases containing the French crown jewels, which remain missing.