Could a 50-year-old maths problem have kept the Louvre museum safe?

6 months ago

Thieves stole priceless Napoleonic-era crown jewels from the Louvre in broad daylight in an eight-minute heist.
The Louvre's security was found lacking, with only one misdirected camera covering the balcony used by the thieves and one in three rooms in the Denon wing lacking security cameras.
The 'museum problem' or 'art gallery problem' is a 50-year-old mathematical question about the minimum number of guards or cameras needed to monitor a museum.
The solution involves dividing the number of corners in a room by three to determine the number of cameras needed, with adjustments for non-divisible numbers.
Steve Fisk's elegant proof in 1978 involved dividing the gallery into triangles and using a three-coloring method to determine optimal camera placement.
The problem has applications beyond museums, including robotics, urban planning, disaster management, and computer vision.
The Louvre's perimeter cameras do not cover all external walls, a known weakness acknowledged by the museum's director.
Museums also face threats from internal theft, vandalism, and other forms of destruction, requiring comprehensive security strategies.

Hasty Briefsbeta