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The Louvre has handed over some of its most valuable jewels to the Bank of France after a spectacular daylight heist exposed horrific lapses in the museum’s security.
On Friday, an undercover police escort oversaw the transfer of some of the remaining jewels to the Bank, 500 meters (about 500 yards) from the museum, French media reported.
They will now be stored in the bank’s most secure vault, 26 meters (85 feet) below the ground floor of its elegant headquarters in central Paris.
The vault is home to 90% of France’s gold reserves, as well as Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and other national treasures. Its contents are estimated to be around €600m (£520m).
“Souterraine,” as the vault is known, is designed to withstand any attack, according to the bank’s website.
The main shaft is protected by a 50 cm thick, seven tonne door made of refractory concrete and reinforced with steel.
Behind that door is a 35-ton rotating concrete tower that, according to the bank, “prevents any possibility of forced entry.”
Last Sunday, masked thieves used an angle grinder to smash a reinforced window in the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery, which houses the French crown jewels.
Within eight minutes, the gang seized treasures including a necklace belonging to Napoleon’s wife Empress Marie-Louise and a tiara belonging to Napoleon III’s wife Empress Eugenie, worth €88m (£77m).
The thieves used a mechanical ladder on the back of a truck to lift them up to a first-floor balcony to enter the gallery.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he had “full confidence” the thieves would be caught.
Although French ministers insist that security at the museum worked properly during the day, Louvre director Laurence de Cars spoke of a weak and “aging” infrastructure.
On Wednesday, des Cars told French lawmakers that the only security camera monitoring the exterior wall where the break-in took place was facing the wrong direction.
