An audacious heist at the Louvre saw thieves make off with priceless crown jewels in broad daylight – here is how a decades-old geometry problem can help museums boost their security.

It took just eight minutes. In those 480 seconds, thieves trundled their way upwards on a mechanical platform to reach a first floor balcony of the Louvre museum in Paris before cutting their way through a window in broad daylight. Once inside, they broke into two glass display cases and then escaped with eight priceless Napoleonic-era crown jewels. It was a ". One of the lingering questions that has dogged the robbery investigation, however, is why the thieves were not spotted sooner.