(MENAFN) Following a daring daylight theft that exposed security weaknesses at the Louvre, some of France’s most valuable jewels have been moved to the Bank of France for safekeeping.

On Friday, a secret police escort transferred the jewels to the Bank’s high-security vault, located 26 meters (85 feet) below ground in central Paris, just 500 meters from the museum. The vault, known as the “Souterraine,” houses 90% of France’s gold reserves as well as national treasures like Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, with an estimated total value of $520 million.

The vault features a 50cm-thick, seven-ton flame-resistant concrete door reinforced with steel, followed by a 35-ton rotating concrete turret designed to prevent forced entry.

Last Sunday, masked thieves gained access to the Louvre’s Gallery of Apollo using a mechanical ladder on a lorry to reach a first-floor balcony. They smashed through a reinforced window with an angle grinder and stole treasures within eight minutes, including a necklace of Napoleon’s wife Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem of Napoleon III’s wife Empress Eugenie, valued at $77 million.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez expressed confidence that the culprits would be caught. Meanwhile, Louvre Director Laurence des Cars highlighted weaknesses in the museum’s aging infrastructure, noting that the sole security camera covering the exterior wall used during the break-in was facing the wrong direction.

MENAFN26102025000045017640ID1110248393