It simply read: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”
A post on X that now has 5.6 million views says: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.”
“Never gonna crack it with a detective who wears an actual fedora unironically,” wrote Melissa Chen, a tech executive based in London, in a post on the social platform X that has been viewed more than 5 million times, The New York Times reported.
“To solve it, we need an unshaven, overweight, washed-out detective who’s in the middle of divorce. A functioning alcoholic who the rest of the department hates.”
Another poster – with 1.2 million followers – claimed that the man “who looks like he came out of a detective film noir from the 1940s is an actual French police detective who’s investigating the theft”.
Some on social media urged Netflix to secure the rights to the man’s story, while others said he was simply being French.
On the speculation that the man was an AI creation, Matt Groh, an assistant professor at Northwestern University whose research focuses on AI-generated images, told The New York Times that it felt plausible because there is something about the image that “seems off”. He looks “too good” to be real.
The photographer, however, confirmed that he was real. “He appeared in front of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” he said. “He passed by and left.”
Camus also said nothing suggested the man was investigating the brazen crime. He was just someone who streamed away from the Louvre as authorities evacuated the area.
“I don’t know him,” he told The New York Times. “I don’t know if he is French. Maybe a tourist? Maybe he is English.”
If the unidentified man really is one of the more than 100 investigators hunting for the jewel thieves, the authorities are keeping it very hush-hush.
“We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said with a wink in an email response to questions.
AP
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