The mystery man in the hat, vest and umbrella photographed in front of the Louvre Museum at the time policemen were guarding the entrance after the theft of the century in Paris, and while the stolen goods remain missing since October 19.
Dressed in a suit and fedora hat, 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garçon Delvo was photographed next to the police outside the Louvre and went viral and several have assumed that the visual document is the product of artificial intelligence.
He immediately got the nickname “the man with the fedora hat”, while he was compared to a detective, or even to one of the robbers of the Parisian museum. In reality, though, he didn’t know the photo was making the rounds on the internet.
When Pedro realized that his photo had garnered millions of views, he decided not to reveal his identity immediately. “I didn’t want to immediately say it was me,” he explains. “There was something mysterious about the photograph, and the mystery must be preserved.”
Conspiracy theories on the internet, at the same time, were on fire. Others mistook him for a detective, others for one of the robbers, while some were sure that this is a human “creation” of artificial intelligence. “I understand why. I’m dressed like I stepped out of the 40s, and it’s 2025.” he says laughing.
The reality is much simpler. Pedro was there with his mother and grandfather for a family visit to the museum. “We wanted to enter the Louvre, but it was closed. We didn’t know there had been a robbery,” he says. A few seconds later, Associated Press photographer Thibaut Camus accidentally captured him as he drove past the scene.
“When the photo was taken, I didn’t know,” the 15-year-old said. “I was just passing by.”
Four days later, an acquaintance texted him: “Are you him?” He told me it had 5 million views, he said. “I was a little surprised.”
Then his mother called to tell him it was in the New York Times. “It doesn’t happen every day,” he said. Cousins in Colombia, friends in Austria, family friends and classmates followed him with screenshots and phone calls. “People were saying, ‘You’ve become a star” he said. “I was surprised.”
Only when friends and relatives recognized his mother in the background of the picture did they realize that the “Louvre detective” was a normal child.
“I like to be stylish. I dress like this at school too”
Pedro didn’t dress like that on purpose, let alone for the photo. For a year now, he has adopted a vintage style, inspired by the black and white photographs of politicians and detectives of the 20th century. “I like to be stylish. I dress like this at school too,” he says.
The fedora hat, however, is something special: “I only wear it on weekends or when I go to a museum.”
A fan of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, Pedro says he understands why people associated him with a fictional detective: “When something unusual happens, you don’t imagine an ordinary detective, you imagine someone different.”
For a few days, Pedro did not speak and watched the phenomenon grow. He then opened his Instagram profile and confirmed that it was him. “The reporters didn’t believe I was 15,” he says. “It was very funny.”
Now he takes the publicity that a chance moment brought him with humor: “I’m waiting to be called to act in a movie,” he says with a laugh. “It would be a lot of fun.”
Information from Guardian