Five days after the spectacular burglary of the Louvre in Paris, part of the museum’s valuable jewelry collection was transferred to the Banque de France for security reasons, local media reported on Friday.
The coins were transported under police escort to the nearby vaults of the French Central Bank, RTL radio reported, citing corroborating sources. The BFMTV channel also indicated that the information had been confirmed.
The Louvre was evacuated and closed on Sunday morning after four masked thieves broke into the Apollon Gallery, which houses France’s last crown jewels.
They broke into two display cases and made off with eight pieces of jewelry that belonged to French queens and empresses, worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million).
The daring break-in also sparked a debate over security measures at the museum.
Initially, it was not clear which exhibits were affected by the transfer. The crown jewels displayed in the Apollo Gallery and other jewels would have been moved. There is still no trace of the perpetrators or the stolen jewelry.
According to the RTL report, the jewelry was placed in a high-security safe located 26 meters underground. Around 90% of France’s gold reserves are also stored there.
Such a transfer is considered extraordinary. Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, estimated at more than 600 million euros, have been kept in these safes for several years.
