Louvre heist: ‘Fedora man’ in viral image revealed as native teenager

Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux, a 15-year-old from Rambouillet, south-west of Paris advised the Associated Press (AP) information company that he had deliberate to go to the Louvre together with his household however discovered the museum was closed.

“We didn’t know there was a heist,” he stated.

As he requested officers concerning the closure, an AP photographer looking for to seize the safety cordon took an image and included Pedro within the body.

Pedro solely realised the photograph had gone viral 4 days later, when a good friend despatched him a screenshot asking: “Is that you?”

When he replied that it was, the good friend stated he had 5 million views on TikTok. “I was a bit surprised,” Pedro advised the AP.

He was much more shocked when his mom known as to say the image had appeared in The New York Times. It made a huge impact on him, he stated, as a result of he reads that newspaper and “it’s not every day you’re in the New York Times”.

“People said, ‘You’ve become a star’. I was astonished that just with one photo you can become viral in a few days.”

Asked why he wore an old style waistcoat and a fedora to the museum, Pedro stated he started dressing this manner not too long ago, impressed by Twentieth-century statesmen and fictional detectives.

“I like to be chic,” he advised the AP. “I go to school like this.”

As wild hypothesis concerning the photograph of him circulated on-line – some puzzled whether or not he could be an actual detective or an AI faux – Pedro remained silent for weeks.

“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” he stated. “With this photo there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”