Associated Incidents
A daring daytime heist of jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris on October 19 made international headlines.
During the heist, the thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder under the museum's Apollo Gallery, and used cutting equipment to get through a window and display cases to steal the jewellery.
A Facebook reel featuring footage purportedly of the theft was posted online by a Hong Kong-based user with more than 240,000 followers.
"At around 9.30am, four masked men ... broke into the building from the balcony and took away the jewellery on display," a voice said in Mandarin at the 41-second mark of the video, as two separate clips of masked people breaking glass cases are shown.
A screenshot of different points in the Facebook reel showing the two fabricated videos of the heist. Photo: Facebook/SCMP Composite
However, a digital forensics expert and the Post's own checks show they are not genuine, and likely generated by AI.
The two supposed videos of the heist have also circulated widely online in the aftermath of the robbery, such as on Douyin -- here and here -- and on RedNote here.
Investigation
The Post reached out to AI Forensics, a European non-profit organisation that investigates digital manipulation. It said that the videos contained a "strong indication" of being AI-generated.
"In both cases objects disappear and appear in the hands of the AI-generated thieves, while their hands morph and fingers disappear," researcher Natalia Stanusch told the Post.
Instances of morphed hands (left) and a disappearing crowbar (right) highlighted in the two fabricated videos. Photo: Facebook/Composite via AI Forensics
Stanusch also noted both videos contained partially obscured watermarks from OpenAI's Sora, an AI video-generation tool.
Instances of the Sora watermarks in both videos. Photo: Facebook/Composite via AI Forensics
In the Post's own checks, the scenes were compared to existing visuals of the Apollo Gallery on the Louvre's website.
In the first clip, the appearance of the gallery entrance is notably different from the genuine article.
A comparison of the entrance of the gallery in the fabricated video (left) with an image of the genuine Apollo Gallery (right). Photo: Facebook/Louvre/SCMP Composite
In the second clip, the motifs lining the actual gallery's roof and far wall do not match.
A comparison of the roof structure and artwork from the fabricated video (left) and the genuine Louvre gallery (right). Photo: Facebook/Louvre/SCMP Composite
SCMP Fact-Check has reached out to the Facebook account owner for comment.
Verdict: False