That’s certainly a striking sense of style.
A man, unexpectedly captured in a photograph taken outside the Louvre in Paris during the investigation into the recent heist at the famous museum, has achieved widespread online popularity.
This enigmatic figure, clad in a three-piece suit featuring a dark jacket and a gold vest, complemented by a fedora and an umbrella serving as a walking stick, generated significant discussion across social media platforms, with users likening him to Inspector Clouseau from the “Pink Panther” series and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
Numerous individuals appeared to conclude that the stylish gentleman was the detective assigned to the case, while others even hypothesized that his refined look suggested an sophisticated perpetrator somehow implicated in the theft.
An X user commented on the image: “This is a real photo (not AI-generated!) of a French detective investigating the theft of the French Crown Jewels from the Louvre,” and another asserted that the man, “who appears to have stepped straight out of a 1940s detective film noir, is indeed a French police detective conducting the investigation.”
A third person posted: “The individual in the fedora is the detective handling the Louvre Jewel heist. Do the French simply excel at everything?”
However, the Associated Press photographer who captured the intriguing image last Sunday stated that he had no basis to think the man was involved in the Louvre investigation, but instead was merely an individual who happened to enter the camera’s view.
Thibault Camus, the photographer, informed his publication that he felt the man contributed a certain Parisian je ne sais quoi — an indefinable quality — to his pictures.
“He materialized before me, I observed him, I took the photograph,” Camus recounted. “He simply walked past and departed.”
The Louvre also chose to introduce a touch of French mystique to the enigma when questioned by the Associated Press about the man’s identity.
“We prefer to sustain the mystery ;)” the Louvre responded.
The previous Sunday morning, four masked culprits pilfered several invaluable items from the Louvre’s crown jewels collection, having gained entry to a gallery shortly after the museum commenced operations.
The perpetrators escaped on scooters and remain at large.