French media recently reported that following the robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, a portion of its jewelry collection has been transferred for storage in the vaults of the Bank of France (Banque de France), the country’s central bank.
France’s RTL radio, citing multiple sources, reported that the collection was transported under police escort on the 24th to the Bank of France’s vault, located several hundred meters from the museum. The details of the transported artifacts remain unclear, but the transfer includes several royal jewels previously exhibited in the Apollo Gallery, the site of the robbery, as well as other jewels exhibited in the museum earlier.
The report noted that the bank is storing these artifacts in its main vault, 26 meters underground, which also holds approximately 90% of France’s gold reserves. Several notebooks by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, valued at over 600 million euros, have also been stored in this vault for many years.
Around 9:30 a.m. on October 19, four masked individuals arrived outside the Louvre, using a coordinated operation with a lift device to break into the interior from an external balcony and steal the displayed jewelry. Within minutes, nine pieces of jewelry were stolen, though a crown belonging to Empress Eugénie has since been recovered by police. The heist has raised public concern over security measures at the Louvre. The Paris prosecutor’s office estimates the economic loss from the Louvre robbery to be 88 million euros.