Last week, a theft incident occurred in broad daylight at the Louvre Museum in Paris, shocking the world and highlighting serious security vulnerabilities at this world-class museum. The Louvre Museum reportedly took extraordinary emergency measures by secretly transferring some of its most precious jewelry collections to the highly secure vault of the Bank of France.
This move indicates a lack of confidence in the current security system at the Louvre Museum and confirms the temporary disappearance of these treasures from public view.
According to reports from various media outlets including French radio RTL, the highly confidential transfer operation was completed on Friday, October 24th. The main targets of the transfer were the precious items not stolen from the Galerie d’Apollon, which houses the collection of French crown jewels.
The entire process was carried out under heavy escort by secret police.
The transferred jewelry is currently stored in the underground vault of the Bank of France, located just 500 meters from the Louvre Museum. The vault is situated 27 meters underground and is used to store France’s national gold reserves.
Both the Louvre Museum and the Bank of France have not publicly commented on this transfer.
The globally shocking theft occurred last Sunday morning, October 19th. At that time, four masked thieves disguised as workers used a truck with a lifting basket to enter through a window on the side of the Seine River, and used an angle grinder to cut open display cases, completing the entire process in about seven minutes.
The thieves collectively stole eight priceless treasures belonging to Napoleon and his wife, estimated to be worth about $102 million.
The only jewelry that survived was the crown of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. The thieves left it behind outside the museum while fleeing, and although damaged, it survived and was recovered by the authorities. (Note: Some initial media reports mentioned that two pieces of jewelry were recovered, but the Paris prosecutor’s office later confirmed that besides this crown, the rest of the eight stolen treasures have not been found.)
Larry Lawton, a former jewelry thief currently cooperating with the police, analyzed the heist and believed that the thieves were able to target and execute the theft so precisely must have had inside knowledge or detailed internal information.
Regarding the eight stolen treasures, Lawton predicted that the thieves would not immediately sell them but rather hide them, “waiting a year or two.” He pointed out that this is because the museum will eventually offer “millions of dollars reward without asking questions” to redeem these jewels of immeasurable historical and cultural significance.
Currently, the whereabouts of these eight stolen treasures remain unknown, and French authorities are analyzing over 150 DNA samples left at the scene to vigorously pursue the suspects.